Matthews skips lucrative post-Tour de France crits to focus on remaining goals

Michael Matthews (Sunweb) took the rare decision to skip a full programme of post-Tour de France criteriums in a bid to remain on track for the second half of the season. This year's winner of the green jersey was invited to take part in a series of races across Europe after his impressive Tour performance saw him win two stages and net the points classification. However, with a series of WorldTour goals and the World Championships on the horizon, the Australian passed up the chance of racing the lucrative evening criteriums.

"I've still got a big season ahead of me and last year when I did the crits it took a lot of energy out of me for the second half of the season," Matthews told Cyclingnews at Sunday's RideLondon.

"This time I decided to just use the time to rest at home. I've got big ambitions for the second half of the season and my team are paying me to race for them. In the end, that's what I have to do. So I went home, I rested, and I started back up with RideLondon."

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Matthews' debut season at Sunweb has gone from strength to strength but the Australian is in no mood to ease off with several important one-day races left on his schedule. His stage racing programme for 2018 is over but the one-day programme builds towards the crescendo of the World Championships in Norway.

"I have Plouay and Hamburg, the Canadian Classics and then Worlds. There are only a few more race days. I think the Worlds course suits me. We went and did a recon a few months ago and it's hard to say who it really suits because of the weather aspect, but it's going to be exciting for sure."

Although Matthews is focused on his remaining races, the Tour de France success is still fresh in his mind and he is still coming to terms with his green jersey triumph.

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