There was no doubt that plan A for Australia’s only WorldTour team, Jayco AlUla, was to win the Santos Tour Down Under as it returned to the calendar in 2023. It was probably plan B and C as well.
However, although they salvaged second place overall and a stage win with Simon Yates on Sunday’s finale, they were left wanting more and will be looking for it next week at the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race.
"We have a super strong team here,” said Michael Matthews after securing the race sprint jersey on stage 5 and then spending his last reserves to set up a tough finale for Yates on Mount Lofty.
"We showed it this week and we are super motivated for next week. Some unlucky things happened this week but I’m ready to show myself again next Sunday."
The Tour Down Under was the main goal, made clear by the fact that they brought out both Matthews and Yates in good form, but the Australian team, who for two years had lost the chance to compete at their home WorldTour races due to cancellations, were struck by misfortune.
First, they lost Chris Harper to a crash on stage 1 and then ,on stage 2, just when Matthews looked perfectly positioned in second on the GC, an ill-timed clash of wheels and chain drop threw the team's carefully laid plans into disarray.
Still the two-pronged approach meant all was not lost as, while Matthews slipped down the GC, Yates moved up, though the top step remained out of reach given the faultless performance from debutant Jay Vine (UAE Team Emirates).
Not that Jayco-AlUla and Matthews would have been a sure bet to beat Vine if it weren’t for that mishap.
"It's hard to say. I would have liked to try for sure and see from there exactly what happened but obviously he was super strong this week. I think you can’t take anything away from his performance," Matthews said.
"In the end things changed along the way but we adapted and came out with second overall and a stage win and a jersey so I think it's not a bad week."
Still, it was not the week that Matthews had worked so hard towards.
"It was my first opportunity to try and go for the ochre jersey in the Tour Down Under. I mean, I've always been the guy helping my teammates to try and win the Tour Down Under," said Matthews.
"Obviously the expectations were high from myself, from the team, from everyone so when I had the mechanical, it was difficult to swallow, but I knew I had to just continue racing for myself – to hopefully come back next year and have the opportunity to go for it again – but also for the team.
"We came here to do big things and we continued that even after some unlucky things along the way."
Does that mean the opportunity lost with that dropped chain has been forgotten?
"No definitely not forgotten," Matthews told reporters on the sidelines. "Every night I’ve had difficulty sleeping over that situation but in the end you have to move on.
"It’s never really going to go away because I knew what a great opportunity this was. I knew what great shape I was in to try and win this Tour Down Under but in the end we made the most of what we had."
However, returning to Europe after a win at the 176km Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race on Sunday January 29 would perhaps make Matthews sleep a little easier.
