A month after collapsing, Matthews rises from pain overload to podium

Michael Matthews is one of Australia’s most accomplished cyclists and has proved at the Giro d’Italia he can beat both the generational talent of his era as well as today’s crop that have upended the WorldTour hierarchy.

However, the 32-year-old admits he didn’t expect to win stage three after suffering a 2½-centimetre quadriceps tear, torn knee and sprained ankle that forced him into a wheelchair and saw him collapse in front of his wife just over a month earlier.

Michael Matthews celebrates at the Giro earlier in May. Credit: Getty Images

Matthews is renowned for his resolve, and his ability to weather setbacks and push physical and mental limits has kept him at the top of the fast-evolving sport for more than a decade. Since turning professional in 2011, he’s only had one season in which didn’t celebrate a victory and that year he still marked a stint as a race leader. His 2022 campaign was up there too, with a solo stage victory at the Tour de France and a bronze medal at the road world championships.

“People think you turn pro and that’s where it gets easier, it’s actually not,” Matthews told The Age from the Giro. “It’s where your career starts and every year there’s always going to be a new competitor that comes with fresh legs, a different technique of training, different technique of racing, and you need to be able to adapt to whatever gets thrown at you.

“We’ve changed a little bit from sprinting to more being able to go for long, long climbs, be more punchy on climbs, and probably more long, hard training where before it was less hours and more sprint training.

“I know I’m not really going to beat these flat sprinters any more, so I’ve got to mould myself into a rider that I can win races from the way they suit me.”

The Jayco Alula team spearhead in his career fourth Giro participation is aiming to finish the grand tour (it’s not uncommon for sprinters to skip the notoriously mountainous final week) for the first time and ride into Rome next Sunday. The fact he made the start line at all, let alone has won a stage, is a testament to Matthews, whose preparation was so fraught with illness and crash-related injuries that he considered retirement from the sport.

Australia’s Michael Matthews celebrates winning the third stage of the Giro d’Italia earlier this month.Credit: AP

Matthews typically targets the classics in the European spring but missed nearly all of them. COVID-19, then a training accident where he crashed on a descent at about 70km/h hampered the first half. He started the Tour of Flanders in April intent on changing his fortune, but was involved in three crashes and did not finish.

“The third one really took me out with a 2½-centimetre tear in my quad, and a one centimetre tear down the side of my knee, sprained ankle and also more skin off my body, which was also not healed from the weekend before,” the Canberran recalled.

Matthews’ wife feared a head injury when later that night he collapsed trying to walk from the bedroom to the bathroom.

“My wife, Kat, was calling the hospitals, calling my team doctor, my manager, everyone around, if there was a head injury or something from the crash,” he recalled.

“We got a concussion test, and the scan of my brain, and there was nothing there. Not exactly sure what the passing out was, they reckon it was probably just too much pain for my body and my body just gave up in that moment.”

Matthews was again sidelined and missed the remainder of the classics. But his love for cycling, which he watched on TV while recovering and training at altitude with long-time coach Brian Stephens, outweighed the considerations he’d given to retirement. His Giro stage win banished them.

That combined with his nature and approach is what has kept him competitive for so long.

“For me, staying consistent is probably the most key thing in my career so far, and enjoying,” he said.

“A lot of guys, they go through a really strict regime of their training and eating, and they can’t continuously back that up over years. I’ve tried to keep it as simple as possible that I know I can continuously do that for more years.”

Matthews continued: “I think also it’s probably the grit that I have. I hate losing. I’m not a good loser.

“I’m a competitor that loves to compete, whether it’s a training effort or a race, I need to be the best and I think that’s something that I’ve had in me since I was a kid ... It’s a positive and a negative sometimes too because when you’re not winning it’s difficult to deal with, but when you are winning it’s great.”

Matthews is picking his battles at the Giro, with a view also to representing Australia at the world championships in August.

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