Evergreen Canberra ace Michael Matthews has helped bring a smile back to his Australian team Jayco AlUla thousands of miles away from their struggles at the Tour Down Under.
After the country's only WorldTour team had suffered a barren Tour back home with no rider in either the top five of the men's or women's race, they could at least count on Matthews, known throughout the sport as "Bling", to provide more than a shiny consolation.
In the first running of a new one-day Spanish race, the Gran Premio Castellon, the 33-year-old serial winner struck again on Sunday (Monday AEDT), winning an uphill sprint to launch his campaign in style.
It was the second day running that Jayco were able to celebrate after their Dutch sprins star Dylan Groenewegen had sped to victory in another one-day race in Spain, the Ruta de la Ceramica-Gran Premio Castellon.
Matthews, who has had only one season (2021) in the last 15 years when he hasn't won a race, was thrilled to get one on the board early in 2024 over the 175km hilly trek which began in Castellon and ended with two short, sharp circuits around Onda.
In the finale, Matthews demonstrated yet again why he remains one of the very best when it comes to uphill sprint finishes, powering away from young Frenchman Pierre Gautherat (Decathlon-Ag2r La Mondiale) and Spaniard Alex Aranburu (Movistar) for the 41st triumph of his career.
"I’ve had a lot of my nice victories in Spain and to be the first winner here in this race is really special," said Matthews.
"Everyone knew the main climb in the final was coming up two kilometres after the finish line (on the penultimate lap), so there was a lot of stress - and then it was full gas from there all the way to the finish.
"Yesterday we worked amazing as a team and today we took it up from the start, we took the responsibility and had confidence in ourselves to deliver the result.
"Full credit to the guys who rode all day today and yesterday for me and for Dylan, it shows that the hard work pays off.”
Matthews will next be in action in the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana at the end of the month.
