'My head was totally going crazy' Australian sprinter says of troubled 2018 season
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Michael Matthews is starting his third season with Team Sunweb in 2019(Image credit: Bettini Photo)
Tom Stamsnijder and Michael Matthews backstage at the Team Sunweb presentation in Berlin(Image credit: Bettini Photo)
Michael Matthews trains with Team Sunweb in Calpe, Spain(Image credit: Bettini Photo)
Michael Matthews trains with Team Sunweb in Calpe, Spain(Image credit: Bettini Photo)
Michael Matthews in the Australian colours wins the U23 race ahead of Degenkolb and Phinney(Image credit: Getty Images)
Michael Matthews’ 2018 season can be seen as a jigsaw puzzle. Starting out, it appeared all the pieces were ready to be slotted into place. Instead, they all ended up on the floor. If at first he struggled to make sense of the mess, by the end of the season he had patched things back up pretty neatly, and had even picked up some new pieces that will only enhance the bigger picture.
The 2017 season had been the strongest of the Australian’s career to date, with two stage wins and the green jersey at the Tour de France followed by a world title in the team time trial. As such, he was convinced “it was all going to happen” in 2018.
Tom Stamsnijder and Matthews backstage at the Team Sunweb presentation in Berlin (Bettini)
The mental aspect is an important one. That the summer, Matthews decided to start seeing a sports psychologist – “someone who could help me keep my head straight and make sure I didn’t lose that belief in myself”.
Matthews and a teammate celebrate his win at the Grand Prix Cycliste de Montreal
‘I wasn’t respected at Orica’
Whether directly or indirectly, Matthews’ time with his psychologist perhaps fed into another aspect of his late-season improvement: his leadership quality. It might seem odd at first that someone whose nickname is ‘bling’ might lack confidence, but that has largely been the case when it has come to standing up and speaking in front of his teammates.
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Patrick is an NCTJ-trained journalist, and former deputy editor of Cyclingnews, who has seven years’ experience covering professional cycling. He has a modern languages degree from Durham University and has been able to put it to some use in what is a multi-lingual sport, with a particular focus on French and Spanish-speaking riders. Away from cycling, Patrick spends most of his time playing or watching other forms of sport - football, tennis, trail running, darts, to name a few, but he draws the line at rugby.
