Photos by Getty Images
Matthews claimed the breakthrough title of his career, producing a crack sprint finish to top the podium in the Men’s U23 Road Race.
Just call him “Bling” – everyone else does. Mostly this is because of the various studs, rings and bars he likes to insert in artful locations around his face. But perhaps it also has something to do with the 20-year-old’s gleaming self-confidence. And why shouldn’t he be confident?
At the recent UCI Road World Championships in Geelong, Matthews claimed the breakthrough title of his career, producing a crack sprint finish to top the podium in the Men’s U23 Road Race. Ask him about the final seconds of that race and he chuckles: “I don’t really know what happened to be honest.” Push him, though, and the details come flooding back: “I just came into the final corner with 700 to go and it was all clear, and I was thinking maybe I was too close to the front, maybe I was going to get rolled in the finish. The bunch swung across towards me and I got boxed in a little bit, but I fought my way through, jumped onto the wheel of Taylor Phinney, soft-pedalled for a little bit, then hit out with a hundred to go. And yeah, it was all good from there.” Certainly was all good – in a dozen pedal strokes he dropped the pack to win by two bike lengths.
That victory capped a superlative year for Matthews. Riding for the Jayco Skins continental team, he took second in the U23 Tour of Flanders, won two stages of the Ringerike GP and led the Thuringen Rundfahrt for two stages. His efforts were closely monitored by the European scouts and in September he was signed to the top-tier squad of Dutch team Rabobank. “It’s going to be bloody hard,” he says, “racing three times a week, particularly racing at the level those blokes will be at. I’m just going to have to train twice as hard as I usually do. Should be fun … ”
What’s his story?
Born and raised in the suburbs of the nation’s capital, Matthews spent his younger years toying with BMX and downhill mountain biking, while devoting himself to his chief love of motoX. It was only at age 16 when, by his own estimation, he was “turning into a bit of a bad kid” that his PE teacher at Melrose High noted his speed on a bike and suggested he sign up for a local talent ID program. Matthews dutifully agreed and was found to have lungs like bellows and legs like pistons. He was promptly ushered into the ACT Academy of Sport where he came under the wing of head cycling coach Glenn Doney.
Doney started the teenager on the track, knowing there’s nothing like endurance work on the boards to kiln-fire precocious talent. “But it didn’t really work out for
me,” says Matthews. “I just didn’t like riding around in a circle, so I didn’t last long – I was only there for a couple of months.” Eager to keep such a strong young talent, Doney decided to let Matthews loose on the road. Within six months he’d won the U17 national road race title. “I’d been riding bikes my whole life, so it was sort of an easy changeover. Well, not easy, but I had all the skills I needed, so all I had to do was train for distance and I was fine.”
Who’s he like?
Matthews has been involved with the AIS High Performance program for the past two years and in that time head coach Shayne Bannan has run a keen eye over the youngster. Bannan’s been at the AIS since 1988 and has seen the gamut of Australia’s cycling superstars. He’s not a man given to hyping young talent, but on the topic of Matthews he’s effusive: “He’s a physical specimen, no doubt. Just the power he can produce over long periods of time and the repeatability of that power … He’s up there with the best of them; he’s got a very similar physiology to someone like Stuart O’Grady. I don’t think he’d be one of the best sprinters in the world and I’m not sure he’d be one of the best climbers out there, but there’s a category called the all-rounder and these guys have very successful careers, particularly in the smaller stage races, the single-day classics like the Paris-Roubaix and, of course, in the World Road Championships. And Michael has the ability to be a class all-rounder.”
– Aaron Scott