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The Roar

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Matthews introduces himself to the world

1st October, 2010
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Michael “Bling” Matthews is Australian cycling’s latest star after his commanding world road championships win.

The 20-year-old from Canberra unleashed the perfect sprint to smash the rest of the field at the end of Thursday’s 159km under-23 race in Geelong.

Matthews incredibly won the bunch sprint by five lengths and became only the fifth Australian to win a world road title.

He started cycling just four years ago through a school talent ID program and already has a contract for next year with Dutch ProTour team Rabobank.

Early in his career, Matthews earnt the nickname “Bling” for his neck chains, ear rings and an eye ring.

Now he has a gold medal to top the collection.

Matthews scored his win on the back of perfect teamwork from Luke Durbridge, who won silver two days ago in the under-23 time trial, Rohan Dennis, Ben King, Joseph Lewis and Malcolm Rudolph.

“It was amazing, I couldn’t have done it without all my team and all the fans out there yelling for me,” he said.

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“I timed my sprint perfectly, made sure (other) guys weren’t around me, hit out and saluted.

“That look to the left, I couldn’t believe it, really – I wasn’t sure if it was real or if I was dreaming.”

Matthews’ sprint was so emphatic, he glanced to his left before the line and saluted the crowd.

German John Degenkolb was second and American Taylor Phinney, who won the time trial, tied for third with Canadian Guillaume Boivin.

“I don’t think there was anybody in the field who could have passed Michael Matthews in the sprint today, he was above and beyond everybody else,” Phinney said.

While Matthews is the first Australian to win an under-23 world road race title, there is a strong link to this country’s first world road champion.

Jack Hoobin won the 1950 amateur road race title and that category changed to under-23 when the amateur and professional cycling bodies merged.

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Matthews was Australia’s main hope on Thursday and the race panned out as they wanted.

American Ben King made an early solo attack that lasted six of the 10 laps.

At one stage the race was all about three Kings, as Australian Ben King and King Lok Cheung from Hong Kong were in a three-man chase group.

The race eventually came together for a frenetic last lap and 45 riders were in the bunch for the final sprint.

Matthews had a knee injury early last month, but managed it well and then pulled out of time trial to focus on Thursday’s race.

“You could have won it, man,” Phinney deadpanned about the time trial.

The win is a massive boost for the Australian camp ahead of the women’s and men’s road races over the weekend.

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“I had a lot of pressure coming into this race, I had the whole team behind me,” Matthews said.

“It’s unbelievable to come up with a result that I’ve been dreaming about since the start of the year, really.

“All the pressure helped me, knowing everyone was backing me and was there for me.”

Matthews’ under-23 team-mates were ecstatic about their perfect race.

“I feel like I’ve won the world championship myself!,” Lewis said.

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