“It’s destroying cycling. I totally disagree with this” – Michael Matthews delivers brutal verdict on modern racing

Michael Matthews is not talking about a single race, a bad sprint, or a frustrating season. He is talking about something deeper, something he believes is quietly reshaping how teams race, how riders are rewarded, and how cycling now looks to anyone trying to follow it.

Speaking on the Roadman Podcast, Matthews offered a blunt assessment of the direction the sport has taken, arguing that the incentives built into modern racing are changing behaviour in ways that are increasingly difficult to reconcile with how cycling still presents itself.

At the centre of his frustration sits the points system.

“Honestly, that’s what, for me, is really killing cycling, is these points,” Matthews said. For him, the issue extends far beyond relegation battles or calendar pressure. It is about what success now looks like inside teams, and how that success is pursued.

Matthews is careful to draw a distinction between effort and outcome. He does not suggest teams are trying less. He suggests they are being pushed to try differently. “You see so many teams now, not just Astana, but a lot of teams setting up their roster now to have as many as they can racing each other, and how does that make a team environment?” he said.

The shift, as Matthews describes it, is subtle but profound. Ambition becomes measurable through accumulation rather than intent. “Their goal now is to have as many in the top ten,” he said, outlining a version of racing where collecting places can matter as much as hunting victories.

For Matthews, the real damage is done in how that plays out for fans trying to understand the sport. “You’re trying to make fans of cycling understand that it’s a team sport, but then you see in a finish three sprinters from the same team sprinting against each other,” he said.

His conclusion is unambiguous. “For me, it’s destroying cycling. I totally disagree with this 100%.”

The criticism lands squarely within the framework overseen by the UCI, but Matthews’ concern is broader than regulation alone. It is about the erosion of shared purpose inside teams, driven by incentives that increasingly reward internal competition.

That same shift, Matthews believes, is visible in how races themselves are decided. “These days, sprinting is not really like that anymore,” he said.

Rather than being a test of pure speed, modern sprints are increasingly shaped by survival, positioning, and who remains capable after harder and more aggressively raced days. “For me to win a sprint… I need to be the fittest guy at the finish of a harder group,” Matthews explained.

He is candid about his own limitations. “I’m not gonna win a bunch sprint, let’s say, against the Philipsens and these sorts of guys,” he said, referencing riders like Jasper Philipsen. His pathway to results now runs through attrition rather than outright pace.

Matthews also admits he has little affection left for traditional mass sprints. “I honestly just don’t really like the bunch sprints anymore,” he said. “You have to have a strong lead out… otherwise you’re just in the washing machine… and it’s just chaos.”

In his view, the disappearance of the pure sprinter is not accidental. “Everyone sort of learnt that being a pure sprinter these days is sort of a dying sort of breed,” he said, pointing to the rise of more durable sprint types and fewer straightforward sprint opportunities.

Beyond structure and tactics, Matthews also touched on a psychological shift that he believes now defines racing at the highest level.

Riding alongside the sport’s dominant figures brings a different kind of pressure, one that is not always expressed through attacks or accelerations. “He doesn’t even care that I’m here, so he doesn’t even consider me as a factor,” Matthews said, describing what it feels like when favourites rotate through decisive moves without even acknowledging those around them. “I’m not even gonna look at you because I don’t even consider you a threat.”

That sense of hierarchy, he suggested, is reinforced long before the flag drops. Training data shared publicly by riders such as Tadej Pogacar, Mathieu van der Poel, and Wout van Aert becomes part motivation and part message. “They use that as extra boost for themselves, but also to show the other guys, like, ‘I’m flying,’” Matthews said.

Matthews’ comments do not read as nostalgia or resistance to change. They read as an adaptation. A rider explaining how the ground beneath the peloton has shifted, and why thriving now requires a different approach, even when that approach is shaped by incentives he fundamentally disagrees with.

His verdict is stark, but it is also revealing. Modern cycling, as Matthews sees it, is not being distorted by a lack of effort or ambition. It is being reshaped by what the sport now chooses to reward, and by the quiet consequences that follow from that choice.