Michael Matthews hasn't changed, but the circumstances around him have. In recent seasons, the Australian's success was no longer in line with his extravagant gifts, even if his dexterity and consistency remained intact.
Since leaving Sunweb and returning to BikeExchange-Jayco at the beginning of 2021, Matthews was routinely in the picture for big prizes, but his running tally of victories in the season and a half leading up to this Tour de France was a paltry one. A win at the Volta a Catalunya in March was his lone triumph since he landed the Bretagne Classic in August 2020.
In Mende on Saturday, Matthews claimed the fourth Tour de France stage victory of his career and his first in five years after a stirring duel with fellow escapee Alberto Bettiol (EF Education First-EasyPost) on the final haul up the Côte de Croix Neuve. The Canberra native's previous Tour successes came in sprints, but he cut his cloth a little differently in the build-up to this year's race.
"Am I a different rider now? Maybe not," Matthews said when he took a seat in the press conference truck afterwards. "I think I'm still the same rider, but sometimes you need to adapt to the role you're given, especially at the Tour de France.
"We knew we were going to have Dylan Groenewegen as our flat sprinter, so I adjusted my training to be able to climb better and not focus too much on flat sprinting. I'm still the same rider, but I needed to adapt for this Tour to support the team and then take my opportunities when they came."
Matthews insisted that the arrival of Groenewegen, winner of stage 3 in Sønderborg, was a relief rather than an imposition. A year ago, Matthews spread himself too thinly while carrying the burden of chasing Tour success for his team. This time around, his brief was more specific. He duly placed second on the two finishes best suited to him thus far, to Tadej Pogacar at Longwy on stage 6 and to Wout van Aert at Lausanne two days later.
"Last year, with me going for flat sprints, climbing stages, breaks, it was too much. It was a lot of pressure on my shoulders to get results," Matthews said. "Now having Dylan, arguably the fastest guy in the world, took a lot of pressure off my shoulders. He could deal with the flat stages, and I could focus on the other stuff."
The climb to Mende
Insanity, so the adage goes, is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Matthews, beaten in sprints twice on this Tour, opted for a different tack on the road to Mende following a conversation with his wife Katarina on the eve of the stage.
"I think I have the most top three or top 10 places over the last couple of years, but without a victory," Matthews said. "I've been consistent, which is good, but you need to win. I had a chat with my wife last night, and she that if I wanted to win, I needed to try something different, something people didn't expect."
After the rapid opening exchanges outside Saint-Étienne, Matthews found himself in the winning break, but when looked around, he saw men far better suited to the stiff final climb out of Mende, riders like Thibaut Pinot, Lennard Kämna, Marc Soler and Jakob Fuglsang.
"When I saw I was surrounded by 19 climbers, I think it's fair to say I was shitting myself," Matthews joked. "I thought I was going to waste energy being out in front all day and get nothing out of it. But I had Mat Hayman on the radio all day, keeping me calm, and he knew my best option was to go early and get a gap on the climbers before the climb."
Matthews seized his opportunity with 50km or so remaining, clipping off the front of break alone before Felix Grossschartner and Luis Leon Sanchez bridged across. The trio would hit the 3km ascent of the Côte de Croix Neuve with half a minute in hand on their pursuers, and while Matthews quickly dropped his companions, he was soon made aware that Bettiol was closing fiercely from behind.
When Bettiol caught Matthews just under a kilometre from the summit, it looked as though the spoils would fall to the Italian. Instead, Matthews fought grimly to stay within a few lengths of Bettiol until the final ramps of the climb. One mammoth effort brought him back to Bettiol's wheel. Another acceleration took him clear. From there, the road levelled off, and by the time Matthews entered the final kilometre, victory was all but assured.
"I had Mat Hayman on the radio saying, 'mate, just ride as fast as you can from bottom to top and you'll win the stage.' I just had to believe that, but when Bettiol caught me, I knew I had a little left, but not much," Matthews said. "I knew myself that when I get to the top of a climb, I can go very deep. I knew I needed to attack him straight away."
The effort put Matthews in mind of his jousts with his regular training partner at his home in Monaco, one Tadej Pogacar. "We attack each other in training, and it doesn't feel like work to train with him, we're just two kids enjoying ourselves – well, I'm not a kid anymore, but he is," Matthews said. "It's good fun, and today it felt like that. But obviously Tadej wasn't in the break – thank God."
