Following the success of his first season with Team Sunweb, Michael Matthews is looking to the new year and assessing a change of targets for 2018. A double stage winner and green jersey winner at the Tour de France, Matthews also enjoyed stage wins at the Vuelta al Pais Vasco and Tour de Suisse, and was part of Sunweb's Worlds TTT winning squad in 2017.
At Sunweb, Matthews has enjoyed an undisputed leadership role at his preferred races in contrast to his time with Orica-Scott. On the Australian team, Matthews and Simon Gerrans often had competing ambitions but in Sunweb, 27-year-old Matthews tells Cyclingnews he could hardly have found a better set up.
"It was the right move across to Sunweb with the support I've received throughout the year and basically I've done all the races I wanted to go for. They gave me full support," Matthews recently told Cyclingnews in China. "That was what I was working towards these last few years. Getting that full support and getting the team to believe in me that I can deliver the results that they expect. You can see how the whole team went this year. We definitely rose up a whole level from what the team was before and I think we are pushing each other to get even better and get the results we deserve."
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As Matthews hints at, the challenge now is to replicate the success of 2017 and continue Sunweb's successes.
"This team has been working for ten years or so and progressing each year," he said. "To have the year that we've had this year, it shows the progression they've made over a long period while getting better and better. It will be hard to top what we've done this year but maybe we'll try and set some different goals and see what we can achieve in different races."
Since 2015, Matthews has won 13 races with all but two coming at WorldTour level. He has also podiumed at Milano-San Remo, Amstel Gold Race, twice at the GP de Québec and London–Surrey Classic, and claimed silver and bronze at the Worlds. From his first team camp with Sunweb, it was evident that Matthews would be leading the team for the Tour with the pressure to deliver and pay back the team for its support. A stage winner in six of his seven Grand Tours, it was on paper a likely outcome. However, a Tour stage win is never a foregone conclusion and after the frustrations of the opening week, six results inside the top nine, the goal of stage wins and the green jersey was slipping away.
Adjusted ambitions from 2018
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