Michael Matthews credited his friend and training partner Tadej Pogačar for helping him rediscover his love for cycling but said there will be no gifts in Sunday's road race at the UCI Road World Championships in Zurich. The Australian is convinced he can beat the Slovenian in an eventual sprint finish.
"When he starts riding more than a few minutes uphill, then it gets more difficult but in training sprints, I can beat him," Matthews told Cyclingnews during the World Championship week, with a good-humoured hint of cycling braggadocio.
"If we come to a sprint together, I'm confident but let's see what happens for that other 270k before that."
Pogačar is unlikely to wait for a sprint and is expected to attack on the rolling 27km Zurich circuit that is covered seven times in the 273.9km elite men's road race.
After completing historic Giro d'Italia-Tour de France double victories, Pogačar took a break and then trained specifically for the world championships. He returned to racing in Canada and won the Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal with a solo attack 23.3km from the finish.
Matthews won the Grand Prix Cycliste de Québec in Canada and saw Pogačar's superb form firsthand.
"He's really good," Matthews said ominously.
"We spent the last three days before I came here training together behind the motorbike, doing motor pacing, doing sprints together, attacking each other on climbs. We had a good time."
Matthews won the under-23 world title in Geelong, Australia in 2010. He has enjoyed a successful but also frustrating professional career since then, with as much disappointment as success. His friendship with Pogačar has helped him find new motivation in recent years.
"What I love about the guy is that he just enjoys riding his bike all the time. After a few years where I wasn't really enjoying it, Tadej has helped me find my love for cycling again."
"We love training together, we have so much fun. It doesn't feel like training, it feels like we're just going out and enjoying ourselves."
Matthews arguably knows Pogačar better than any of his rivals for Sunday's road race and perhaps has a faster sprint finish but struggles to see how the Slovenian can be beaten.
"If I knew how to beat him. I would have done it already in other races," Matthews said.
"He doesn't have his UAE Team here, like he had in Montréal, to really ride a high pace all day, that could be a facto. But he can basically do everything."
Matthews leads a solid Australian team that includes Jay Vine, Jai Hindley, Ben O'Connor and four other reliable WorldTour level riders.
He is a contender if the race ends in a small group finish, as the women's race did on Saturday where Lotte Kopecky won the six-rider sprint to claim her second consecutive world championship title.
"I'm really confident in myself," Matthews said.
"I think Quebec went really well. At Montréal, I under-fueled a little bit and just blew up in the final but I learned from that. Hopefully this Sunday I'm stronger."
Matthews was part of Australia's winning team in the Mixed Relay time trial on Wednesday, pulling on a rainbow jersey and perhaps finding a good omen for Sunday. He was able to get what he called a 'full pace, full lactate' look at the 27km Zurich circuit during the event.
"I think the key climb of the circuit is not as hard as I thought when I looked at the profile. I'm a bit more confident now after seeing it," Matthews said.
"Without radios, it's going to be really hard to keep the race under control. We'll try our best. I think Benno (Ben O'Connor) and Jay (Vine) are really in good shape. The rest of the guys are coming in from the Vuelta and from different races, so I think we have a great, strong team."
Australia, like every other major nation, will try to ride their race rather than let Pogačar dictate things.
"We'll play our cards and ride our own race," Matthews insisted.
"There are a lot of big threats out there, not just Pogačar. If everyone targets him, then some other person will win."
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