"It was a pretty crazy day until the final" - Michael Matthews shows strong pre-Tour de France form with 2nd on stage 2 of 2024 Tour de Suisse

A four-time Tour de France stage winner, Michael Matthews is showing some good form once again in his preparation for the 2024 edition. The Australian of Team Jayco AlUla finished 2nd on stage 2 of the 2024 Tour de Suisse.

“I think today was good, it was a pretty crazy day until the final. We knew it was going to be a pretty hard, exciting final and that’s exactly what happened," reflected the 33-year-old in a post-stage interview with his team's social media pages. "We had three of us really in the race coming into final with Mauro and Anders. Mauro was covering moves towards the end there and that set me up well for a sprint and I finished in second."

In the end, it was Bryan Coquard who secured the stage win, with Matthews holding off Arnaud De Lie for second after the Belgian suffered a late mechanical. Despite missing out on the stage win, Matthews is generally happy with his performance.

"I think it’s a good bounce back off Gippingen where I crashed and yesterday, to be back on the podium today," concludes the former Green Jersey winner at the 2017 Tour de France, staying optimistic about his chances, despite the majority of the 2024 Tour de Suisse being uphill from here to the finale at the end of the week. "Hopefully we can keep moving on from here.”