#TourDownUnder 🇦🇺 🥇 STAGE WIN - @SimonYatess 💙 POINTS JERSEY - @blingmatthews 🥈 SECOND OVERALL - Yatesy A solid week of racing for the boys at @tourdownunder! 🔥
"Every night I’ve had difficulty sleeping" - Michael Matthews wins points classification at Tour Down under but suffers over lost GC opportunity
CyclingSunday, 22 January 2023 at 19:00
Michael Matthews has his climbing legs sharp and that was clear during this week's Tour Down Under. Besides stages, the Australian rider hoped to fight for the overall classification, but was left disappointed after an early-week incident prevented him from fighting for that goal.
"We have a super strong team here. We showed it this week and we are super motivated for next week. Some unlucky things happened this week but I’m ready to show myself again next Sunday," Matthews said following the end of the Tour Down Under this Sunday, but already having in mind the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race which will take place this next weekend.
Matthews collided with Magnus Sheffield on stage 2 to Victor Harbor, at the base of Nettle Hill where the race exploded. He was unable to return to the peloton and lost minutes on the day. He had hoped to take on the ochre jersey that day.
"It was my first opportunity to try and go for the ochre jersey in the Tour Down Under. I mean, I've always been the guy helping my teammates to try and win the Tour Down Under," he stated.
Still, despite winning the points classification, it was not an overall success for the 32-year old: "It's hard to say. I would have liked to try for sure and see from there exactly what happened but obviously he was super strong this week."
"I think you can’t take anything away from his performance. In the end things changed along the way but we adapted and came out with second overall and a stage win and a jersey so I think it's not a bad week," he continued. "Obviously the expectations were high from myself, from the team, from everyone so when I had the mechanical, it was difficult to swallow, but I knew I had to just continue racing for myself – to hopefully come back next year and have the opportunity to go for it again – but also for the team.
"We came here to do big things and we continued that even after some unlucky things along the way," he added, as he helped teammates Simon Yates to victory and second place in the overall classification on the final stage to Mount Lofty.
However, his own goals weren't forgotten. "No definitely not forgotten. Every night I’ve had difficulty sleeping over that situation but in the end you have to move on. It’s never really going to go away because I knew what a great opportunity this was. I knew what great shape I was in to try and win this Tour Down Under but in the end we made the most of what we had," he concluded.
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