"It is going to be tough, but I have confidence that I can win" - Michael Matthews is not afraid of star opponents at Tour of Flanders
Cycling
Michael Matthews highlighted the Tour of Flanders as one of his main targets this year, with ambition to stand on the podium in Oudenaarde. The 2024 edition as left a bitter taste in the Australian’s mouth after the he was relegated from sought after third place.
"Flanders is a race that I love, and it is a race that I really would love to win and believe I can win," Matthews says in a pre-race media release by Jayco AlUla.
Last year Matthews was close to securing a podium spot, however he was relegated to 11th place following an irregular sprint. "2024 was a hard pill to swallow with what happened in the final sprint, however I am back and in great shape once again and want to be there in the final once again, battling it out for victory."
On Sunday he will face off against riders of the highest caliber, including Tadej Pogacar and Mathieu van der Poel. Matthews is well aware that several things would have to play out favorably for the Australian to have a shot at top result. "It is of course like all races now, going to be tough, but I have confidence, a strong team and I just hope everything goes smoothly on the day."
Coming off a fourth place at Milano-Sanremo, the 34-year-old seems to be on the right track to be in the thick of action this weekend. What may play a bit less in his favor is the strength of his team - a mix of experienced riders and Flanders debutants (Jelte Krijnsen and Robert Donaldson) where only Max Walscheid stands out (both figuratively and literally thanks to his size).
Team Jayco AlUla for 2025 Tour of Flanders:
- Robert Donaldson
- Kelland O’Brien
- Elmar Reinders
- Michael Matthews
- Jelte Krijnsen
- Jasha Sütterlin
- Max Walscheid
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- His basic attitude always has been (and we know age often reinforces inherent values), if I’m going down I’m going to try taking you with me.Mistermaumau08-04-2025
- I know it’s tradition and nice but to make the discussion more interesting, if an Arkea rider had driven up to tell Alpecin or UAE to ease off for Mozzato or Vauquelin having a P, would they have been as gentlemanly?Mistermaumau08-04-2025
- That’s probably about right although if they’d talked it over it would have been in all their interests to work together to chase Pog down because those 4 arriving at the finish in that scenario would have left all 4 with a chance of victory.Mistermaumau08-04-2025
- Exactly, that easily makes for a minute at the front. You don’t see Pog cracking often either (less often than MVDP even) but when he does it’s lights out and over too. This is completely normal and to be expected, at the level of competitiveness all these guys are they only crack once they’ve pushed beyond their manageable limit and there’s no coming back from that. When your rival forces you into the red to keep or catch up, it’s over, in that respect, well done to WVA who seems to be world champion in staying just outside the red for as long as he can.Mistermaumau08-04-2025
- If I remember well, Pidcock slowed, whether out of respect or strategically or just happy he could ease off a bit, only he knows. Your point?Mistermaumau08-04-2025
- I believe Mathieu rather gets beaten by a stronger rider than one who raced smarter. That is why he wanted to team up with Pogacar to drop the JV riders and Mads who were not helping in the chase of the first group since they had a teammate up front.JoostMehrtens08-04-2025
- Just shows that LA is not truly repentant. JUSTICE was served. No winner, no second , no third on the podium for those 7 years. No real winners could be determined, ever. Lance got to keep most of his money , he really should can it . He is toxic to cycling.dave08-04-2025
- Tricky one as while I agree Pogi and UAE are simply faster over a long distance which means Visma and MVP need to be as smart with energy use as can, it's also been proven in the past that one way for Pogi to be beaten is relentless attacks, to put him into the red. However that does require a rider to as good as sacrifice themselves for that one move which makes riskHoopoeChai07-04-2025
- Even if not technically against the rules, this is just bad etiquette and frankly I hope the rest of pelaton remembers Arkea don't care about etiquette or honoring tradition which means they shouldn't benifit from it.HoopoeChai07-04-2025
- The other issue is that Mad Petersen and Wout would have let MVDP do most of the work, as he kept showing he was stronger. MVDP did the strategy with the highest likelihood of victory, he just wasn't strong enough.acem8207-04-2025