FINDING FLANDERS
Michael Matthews is a habitual late season starter. Two years ago, he came down from altitude and won the very first day he pinned on a number in the Paris-Nice prologue. The year before at the same race, he won on day four. But in 2018, for the first time in four years, the Canberran started his season before February was over, as he switched his focus from winning grand tour stages to racing at the Classics. This year’s race was only his second appearance at Omloop: he recorded a DNF in 2013.
Matthews had been at a training camp in Sierra Nevada and he descended a couple of days before the race, hoping the turbo boost that had served him so well in Paris-Nice would be evident for Omloop, although he underlined he was racing in support of Team Sunweb’s designated leader, Edward Theuns. He arrived earlier than his team and had done an unsupported recon in partnership with Theuns, a Ghent native. They had covered the Muur-Bosberg finale. It was only the second time Matthews had ridden it. The hype didn’t faze him. “For sure it’s spectacular for the fans and the Belgians, but for me it’s just another cobbled hill. It’s not really that technical, either,” he told us nonchalantly on the eve of the race.
Matthews had had a long off-season and it was difficult to tell whether he had enjoyed or endured it. The 27-year-old’s immaculate 2017, which included winning the Tour de France green jersey and two stages was also a long one: it ended at the Tour of Guangxi. He started training again in mid-November. “I’ve not just been relaxing, I’ve been training like a crazy man,” he said, with a faint smile. “It’s been a long time training without a race to break it up.”
He said he had taken to watching videos of last year’s highs to tap into the positive emotions that were absent during weeks of unrelenting training. “Now and again I need that feeling I’m a really good rider. You spend so many weeks really smashing yourself in training, but you never really have the feeling you are getting anywhere. I guess I need those memories from the year before to keep pushing harder,” he said.
After last year’s success in the Tour, in particular winning the green jersey, he decided to focus on the cobbled and hilly Classics. “This one-day racing is what I really enjoy: the cobbles and the Ardennes Classics,” he said. He has finished in the top five twice at the Amstel Gold Race and was fourth at Liège last year. He admitted his experience on the cobbles is “probably not what it should be.” Besides helping Theuns, he was eager to explore his own facility for years hence.
When Omloop got underway, Matthews delivered a spry performance near the head of the race as cracks started to appear around the Molenberg. However, the Australian’s race ended abruptly when he was brought down in a crash as the race approached Geraardsbergen in full cry. A small fracture in his shoulder meant another DNF. The Classics: hard to ride and harder to master.