"I was probably one of the few that wasn't that far off the Van der Poel/Van Aert" - Michael Matthews regrets 15th place at Paris Olympics

Michael Matthews had only just made his Olympic Games debut last weekend. Aged 33, it may come as a surprise, but the experienced rider hadn't been selected to represent Australia until Paris. Of course he didn't come just to enjoy the atmosphere as the ambition was to land on the final podium. However it wasn't to be as Matthews has to accept a result outside the top 10.

"It didn't go according to plan, let's say," Matthews told Cyclingnews. "Obviously we wanted to be fighting for a medal today (Saturday, ed.) so I'm obviously disappointed."

Occasionally we have seen some Australian jerseys, but objectively speaking they didn't particularly impress. Yet Matthews assures he was physically up to the job. "I think legs were good on the climb. I was probably one of the few that wasn't that far off the Van der Poel/Van Aert group, so obviously finishing where I finished is disappointing," he refers to his 15th place.

"I think when you have teams like Belgium with two clear leaders, they can run two game plans with Van Aert and Evenepoel. They can run Evenepoel with a long move and Van Aert for a reduced sprint. So I think that was key today but when you have options with four riders compared to three, it is more difficult to have that game plan."

Adding to the numerous complaints of the race format, Matthews adds that unusual bib numbers made things extra complicated. "People are not in their normal jerseys, and with the different numbers - looking at the board from the motorbike, you have no idea who's in front. So it's a bit chaos, but it's the same for everybody," he said.

Matthews isn't giving up on his Olympic dream, already eyeing the 2028 Los Angeles. He'll already turn 37 at that time. "We'll see. I'm 33 now so let's see hopefully one more, another shot but I will have to wait a couple of years now."