Santos Tour Down Under 2019: Mathew Hayman to bow out of professional cycling at the TDU

After 20 years as a professional, Mathew Hayman says farewell to cycling at the Santos Tour Down Under in Adelaide next week. But he doesn’t plan to go out with a whimper.

• Santos Tour Down Under 2019 — Full Coverage

The fairytale ending would have had Mathew Hayman riding into that old velodrome in Roubaix in April, standing under the concrete showers and then racking his bike and retiring for good.

But Hayman has already lived the fairytale by winning Paris-Roubaix in 2016.

So the perfect ending to a cycling career that has spanned 20 years is back where it all began — in Australia and at the Santos Tour Down Under.

Mathew Hayman crosses the finish line ahead of Tom Boonen to win the 2016 Paris — Roubaix. Picture: Bryn Lennon/Getty Images)

“There’s been talk of going through to Roubaix but Roubaix for me is another whole season, it means doing everything to get ready like altitude training camps and I wasn’t prepared to go down there,” said Hayman, 40.

“I’ve had such great experiences at Down Under and I even thought about saying to the team I could do it with UniSA, but (director) Matt White said ‘no, no, if you’re doing it then you’re doing it with us’ and while part of me wanted to finish in a national jersey at a world championships — this is a perfect way to end it and it ticks a lot of boxes.”

Hayman will draw the curtain on his professional riding career in Adelaide this week but his farewell tour has been going for months since announcing his plans in September.

“There was a point where I wanted to get it out, I’d made the decision, informed the team and I could be honest to people who were starting to ask the question,” he said.

“It took a while during the season to make the decision and it played on me for a little while, I wasn’t sure, but I am now. It’s not that I haven’t enjoyed it, I have, but it’s time to move on and free up a spot for a young fella.”

Mathew Hayman kisses his trophy after winning the 114th edition of the Paris-Roubaix. Picture: Francois Lo Presti/AFP

But Hayman is not coming to Adelaide one last time to simply wave goodbye to the crowd.

e is hellbent on going out a winner with Mitchelton-Scott keen on defending the ochre jersey with Daryl Impey.

“People ask me about going for a win or a stage, well I’m not quite in the form that Patrick Jonker was when he bowed out (by winning the TDU in 2004) but it’s a very important race for us,” he said.

“I’ve been on two or three winning teams in the last five years and that’s a great feeling to do that in front of a home crowd.

“I was wondering what the motivation would be like over summer but it’s been good knowing that ‘hey this is something that you’re really going to miss’.”

Hayman turned professional in 2000 with Rabobank and developed from a domestique to a classics contender because of his big engine and ability to handle rough terrain.

Although he’s won Paris-Roubaix and was Commonwealth Games road race champion in Melbourne in 2006, he takes as much joy in helping his teammates win — like on the Gold Coast last April with Steele von Hoff.

Mathew Hayman after winning the 2016 Oppy Medal at the Cycling Australia awards.

“When you’re trying to explain it to someone else you say ‘well not everyone can be the point guard or striker’ there are other jobs to fill and I’ve just tried to do my job as best I can — be indispensable and try to make myself useful,” he said.

Winning Roubaix made the years of suffering worthwhile but he still says he’d do it all again even if he never got to hold up the giant cobblestone.

“Part of me says everything I ever did was rewarded with that day and it cemented my career in many ways,” he said.

“But having said that I would do it all again if I didn’t get that victory, if that hadn’t of come, I still would have looked back and said day in day out I trained because I wanted to train and raced because I wanted to race.”

The only thing he would have done more, he says, would have been to back himself more early on, and his only regret is not being selected to race at an Olympic Games.

“Realistically I played my role — full back or whatever it was — maybe I could have taken a few more opportunities (because) some I converted,” he said.

He doesn’t, however, leave the sport disillusioned and plans to stay involved.

“It would be almost selfish of me to let 20 years of experience disappear in some ways, there are guys asking for advice and for that knowledge and while it’s still fresh why not pass it on,” Hayman said.

MATHEW HAYMAN’S CAREER IN NUMBERS

16 — The number of times it took Mathew Hayman to win Paris-Roubaix when he finally saluted in the epic cobbled classic in 2016.

19 — His years as a professional cyclist since turning pro with Rabobank in 2000.

1 -— He won gold by finishing first in the road race at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne.

2018 — The year he wore the green and gold jersey for the final time at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games.

3 — The number of times Hayman finished the Tour de France.

3 — How many pro teams Hayman has ridden for - Rabobank, Sky and Mitchelton-Scott.

4 — His highest finish in Gent-Wevelgem.

40 — The age he will be when he retires from professional cycling at this week’s Santos Tour Down Under.

11,135 — The number of kilometres he raced in 2018.

65 — The place he finished in his first ever attempt at Paris-Roubaix in 2000.

Originally published as Santos Tour Down Under 2019: Mathew Hayman to bow out of professional cycling at the TDU