Michael Matthews capped an emotional and difficult week in Canada by taking his third victory at the Grands Prix Cyclistes de Québec.
After arriving in North America, the 32-year-old watched his grandmother’s funeral online from his hotel room after she recently passed away in Australia. Matthews was full of emotion at the finish and dedicated his win, at a race that’s rapidly becoming his own, to her memory.
The Australian had to bide his time in the final few kilometres after Tadej Pogačar and Arnaud De Lie pulled away from the front of the peloton on the race’s final climb, the Côte des Glacis.
He was then forced to gamble on the move being reeled back in before unleashing a typically powerful sprint from range on the Grande Allée which ensured he’d take the win ahead of Biniam Girmay.
Matthews used his winner’s press conference to pay tribute to his grandmother and said he had been determined to end a difficult week for his family on a high.
"This one's for my grandma who passed away last Wednesday," he said. "I watched her funeral online here in Québec two days ago. So to turn that around to victory today, two days later, after watching her coffin go into the ground is really quite emotional honestly.
"Seeing the funeral online, and watching my family be together with me being here on the other side of the world by myself, not with them, that gave me extra extra energy for today. For sure, I thought if I couldn't win today, honestly, what's the point of being here. I just can't believe I could actually pull this off after such a hard moment for my family in all of our lives."
Matthews noted the huge array of powerful riders on the start line in Québec but said that it didn’t matter who he had been up against, he fully believed he would come out on top.
He said: "I'm not the fastest guy in a typical bunch sprint, but on a finish like this, I can battle with the best. I think I had a smile on my face for that final 300 metres. It was long, but I knew once I launched, it would have been difficult for someone to come around me."
Ready for Montréal
Much of the pre-race noise had centred around Pogačar returning to action in Canada after achieving his third Tour de France title in July. Matthews and the Slovenian are close friends, but the race winner said he used Pogačar’s presence to enable him to fly under the radar as he looked to get back to winning ways.
Matthews was left frustrated in the spring after narrowly missing out on victory at Milan-San Remo before he then was relegated from the podium at the Tour of Flanders due to allegedly deviating from his line in the final sprint.
"I think wherever Tadej goes, he's going to have the spotlight on him," Matthews said. "He can't go into a race anymore not to win. He's great for the sport, but I just focused on myself and made sure I delivered the job for my team. I was really happy that I could do that today."
Matthews was mobbed by his Jayco teammates at the finish as they celebrated together. Simon Yates said that the team could now go into Sunday’s GP Montréal full of belief after Matthews’ dominant win.
"This is his race," he said. "If you go back and look at his results here, I don’t think he’s ever been outside the top ten. It’s a super special race for him and I’m sure we will now go and give Montréal a good crack on Sunday."
