Michael Matthews and his love for friend and World Championships favourite Pogacar: "Tadej has helped me find my love for cycling again"

Michael Matthews has recently won the GP de Québec and is a rider that historically, performs very well at the World Championships. He comes as a strong outsider but one who will have a very big task taking into consideration how much climbing will be done this Sunday. But he was asked and talked extensively about his relationships with Monaco 'neighbour' Tadej Pogacar.

"When he starts riding more than a few minutes uphill, then it gets more difficult but in training sprints, I can beat him. If we come to a sprint together, I'm confident but let's see what happens for that other 270k before that," Matthews said in an interview for Cyclingnews. "We spent the last three days before I came here training together behind the motorbike, doing motor pacing, doing sprints together, attacking each other on climbs. We had a good time."

Having trained with the main favourite for today's race, it can be argued that Matthews definitely has a good preparation for the race. In 2015, 2017 and 2022 Matthews finished on the podium and that would be possible if the race does not explode until late; and the Australian has his very best legs in a race that could prove to be very tactical such as the women's event yesterday.

On Pogacar, Matthews continued: "What I love about the guy is that he just enjoys riding his bike all the time. After a few years where I wasn't really enjoying it, Tadej has helped me find my love for cycling again. We love training together, we have so much fun. It doesn't feel like training, it feels like we're just going out and enjoying ourselves."

"If I knew how to beat him. I would have done it already in other races," he said, ironically because the Australian did recently win the GP de Québec against a top field, a win that has given him a lot of confidence. But he is aware that this will be a very different race to that, much more similar to the GP de Montréal. "He doesn't have his UAE Team here, like he had in Montréal, to really ride a high pace all day, that could be a facto. But he can basically do everything."

"There are a lot of big threats out there, not just Pogačar. If everyone targets him, then some other person will win," he concluded. Realistically, Matthews ends up being in that list of big threats himself, coming as an outsider for the triumph this afternoon in Zurich.