A day after missing the opening Tour of Alberta team time trial win by less than a second, Orica-GreenEdge sprinter Michael Matthews delivered for the Australian team during stage 2, winning a bunch kick in a photo finish ahead of Giant Alpecin's Nikias Arndt and Katusha's Alexey Tsatevich.
Matthews no doubt felt the pressure to perform as his team's sprint train delivered him into the final few hundred metres in perfect position.
He jumped off his final lead-out man's slipstream with about 200 metres to go, but he nearly mistimed the move and allowed Arndt to close in with a final surge to the line. Matthews saved his win with a last-second bike throw that pushed his tyre just ahead of Arndt's.
ADVERTISEMENT
With time bonuses at the finish, Matthews now leads Trek Factory Racing's Marco Coledan by 10 seconds and Orica-GreenEdge's Christian Meier by 10. Bauke Mollema, race leader after stage 1, dropped to fourth in the overall standings, also 10 seconds down.
"From about five kilometres to go we took the front, and with guys like Svein [Tuft] and Luke Durbridge riding the front, there aren't too many guys in the pro peloton that can drag race two guys like that," Matthews said.
"Having another four really big team time trial guys to follow up on them, it made it quite easy for us in the end to use our horsepower to our advantage. The boys totally nailed it. We knew what we needed to do but it's another thing putting it together on the day and pulling it off, they really nailed it."
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
via Cyclingnews Latest Race Results http://ift.tt/1Fn3yyK
No comments:
Post a Comment