Michael Matthews took Orica-GreenEdge’s first win on European soil for the 2014 season with a convincing bunch sprint victory at the Vuelta a La Rioja in Basque Country. Matthews bettered his second place position at this event last year ahead of Francesco Lasca (Caja Rural- Seguros RGA) in second and Carlos Barbero (Euskadi) in third.

“It’s obviously nice to win at any time, but the first win of the year is always hard to get,” said Matthews. “Once you get the first one they usually keep coming. The lead out was perfect today, probably the best lead-out I’ve experienced with any team. Hopefully the win today gives the team confidence that I can win and if we can keep these lead outs going there should be more wins to come.”

The team went into the 164.7 kilometre warm up race for this week’s six day Vuelta al Pais Vasco firmly focused on getting Matthews to the line for the win.

“Everything went to plan today,” Matthews said. “We came here and were expected to win. We had to work a little harder than we would have liked to bring back the break at the end and we had to sacrifice a few guys.

“Hopefully they can recover ahead of the first stage of Pais Vasco tomorrow,” added Matthews. “We’ve done recon on that stage and it’s going to be harder than we first expected. We’ll be giving it a good go tomorrow.”

With the team’s first win of the European season coming relatively late in comparison with previous years, the confidence garnered from Matthew’s win has come at an ideal time ahead of the Basque tour that brought so much success for the team in 2013.

“This win is really good for morale ahead of Pais Vasco,” said Stephens. “We’ve given our older guys a bit of a rest, which meant our younger guys had the chance to take a few opportunities, which they did quite successfully. Now our more experienced riders are back in the mix, and we’re going to try to win some bike race again. It’s taken a little while to get our first victory in Europe this year, but this is a great sign of things to come in the weeks ahead.”

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