Michael Matthews takes aim at Ardennes Classics after Flanders relegation disappointment
Australian leads Jayco-AlUla into first of the Ardennes Triple at Amstel Gold Race
Michael Matthews will lead Jayco-AlUla into the Ardennes Classics at Sunday's Amstel Gold Race as the Australian looks to add to his impressive history of results at the Dutch race.
The Australian is a perennial contender throughout the spring and has five top ten results to his name at Amstel Gold Race, including a third-place finish back in 2015.
After finishing eighth at the recent Brabantse Pijl, leading home the chase group behind the winning move, Matthews is determined to move on after his relegation from the podium at the Tour of Flanders.
He was shunted from third place to 11th after race commissaires ruled he deviated from his line in the chase group sprint, obstructing Nils Politt (UAE Team Emirates) in the dash for the line.
Earlier this spring he sprinted to a close second at Milan-San Remo, a career-best result, and back in January he won the Ruta de la Ceramica in Valencia, Spain.
Following a nine-day racing break after Flanders, Matthews got back in the saddle at Brabantse Pijl and will now head up Jayco-AlUla for another tilt at Amstel Gold Race, La Flèche Wallonne, and Liège-Bastogne-Liège.
Joining him in the lineup for the first of the Ardennes triple will be Luke Durbridge, Lawson Craddock, Anders Foldager, Jan Maas, Felix Engelhardt, and Mauro Schmid.
The latest race content, interviews, features, reviews and expert buying guides, direct to your inbox!
"Michael Matthews will be our leader," said team directeur sportif Pieter Weening, who raced Amstel Gold Race 10 times during his career.
"He's in really good shape and he finished off his cobbled classics campaign in really good shape and with the team we're going to fully focus on him.
"We also know that it is always a hard race and it's always about positioning so getting into the right place before crucial points is the most important task for the other riders and getting Matthews into the right position. That's the only goal the other riders have, positioning him and keeping him out of trouble.
Lawson Craddock said that he and the team are expecting a longer 'final', with the action beginning from further out from the finish, in line with many other one-day races of modern times.
"We've seen a big shift in how these races are raced in the last couple of years and they've definitely got much more aggressive with the final starting much further out," he said.
"I think we can expect a lot of the same for Amstel Gold Race on Sunday. The course is challenging all day, and it definitely forces everyone to be on the front foot all day if they want any chance of success and that will be objective number one for us.
"We're going in with Michael Matthews and he's been on a tear lately with some of the big results that he's got. There's a lot of confidence in him knowing that he can deliver a good ride for us. I think we'll just aim to be proactive all day and make it our ride instead of trying to race someone else's race."
Dani Ostanek is Senior News Writer at Cyclingnews, having joined in 2017 as a freelance contributor and later being hired full-time. Before joining the team, she had written for numerous major publications in the cycling world, including CyclingWeekly and Rouleur. She writes and edits at Cyclingnews as well as running newsletter, social media, and how to watch campaigns.