This day last year, Michael Matthews was forced to withdraw from Orica-GreenEdge's Tour de France selection just 24 hours shy of the start in Leeds due to the lingering effects of a training crash in the build-up to the race.
Twelve months on, however, Matthews is set to make his belated Tour de France debut, where he will spearhead his team's bid to land a stage win after drawing a blank in his absence last time around. The Australian arrives at the Tour on a high after stage wins at the Giro d'Italia and the Tour de Suisse in recent weeks, and a spring campaign that included podium finishes at both Milan-San Remo and Amstel Gold Race.
"Last year, I had a lot of stress going into the Tour de France, and it could have been one of the reasons why I did end up crashing," Matthews told reporters in Utrecht on Friday. "This year I've had a lot of consistent results so I don't have extra, added pressure on me. I know I have the form, I know I've done everything right and I'm in a really relaxed state, so now it's just a question of getting to the start and seeing what comes."
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The punchy opening week of this Tour certainly offers several opportunities for a finisseur such as Matthews, though he pointed out that he would not be expecting to go head-to-head against the pure sprinters in mass finishes on the flatter stages.
"I think this year we're not going to target the flatter sprints because it's hard for a rider like me to beat people like [André] Greipel and [Mark] Cavendish," Matthews said. "We'll go for the hillier finishes where there's a reduced bunch because that suits the characteristics of our team."
As at the Giro, Matthews will share responsibilities in such finales with his stable-mate Simon Gerrans. A broken collarbone and a broken elbow hampered Gerrans in the spring and he arrives at the Tour eager to make up for lost ground, though he acknowledged that a repeat of 2013, when he and teammate Daryl Impey enjoyed stints in the yellow jersey, might prove beyond him on this course.
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