It's almost a year since Michael Matthews last claimed victory, and he hasn't done so since his switch back to Australian WorldTour squad Team BikeExchange in a high-profile transfer at the end of the 2020 season.
He has accrued 18 top-ten finishes in his 2021 season to date. While there is plenty of value in being consistently competitive across a variety of terrain and giving fans back home something to cheer for, the constant refrain of the team and Matthews is that are going for wins. In that respect, they haven't delivered.
Sometimes there are factors beyond the norm that have prevented the wins. Matthews likely could have snagged a result at the Tour de France if he hadn't been consistently fighting for the green jersey day-in and day-out.
Other times he has run into better riders. The quotes heading into the season out of the Team BikeExchange camp were to the effect that Matthews and the team didn't see him as consistently being able to match it with the pure sprinters. That has been the case, he clearly has a very good kick still, but gone are the days where on a flat sprint, you'd tip the Canberran to beat the likes the top or even second-tier of sprinters in the WorldTour.
Then there's the recent proliferation of high-quality puncheurs. Mathieu van der Poel, Wout van Aert, Tom Pidcock, even Primož Roglič has to have his name added to the list when you're talking about the uphill finishes on the shorter climbs where Matthews has excelled in the past.
What is hardest to stomach though, is where there is a breakdown in tactics. On last night's Stage 6 of the Vuelta, there wasn't a clear plan from Team BikeExchange on how the stage was going to be won until the race was already in a bad position.
With the break getting established after a 50-kilometre battle, there's often a time of recuperation within the peloton. A time for relaxation after a constant battle for early position, following moves and expending effort. It can often give the breakaway a big lead quickly and so it proved on Stage 6, with the gap back to the peloton swelling rapidly under the lethargic tempo of Trek-Segafredo, who had little reason or apparent inclination to chase.
That was the case until the gap hit seven minutes with 85 kilometres to go, and then suddenly, it was all action from Team BikeExchange as Aussie Robert Stannard and Andrey Zeits hammered away, dragging the main bunch with them. The pair saw the gap diminish rapidly, with Damien Howson then also coming to the fore to help reduce the break's advantage.
The question was posed in commentary on SBS VICELAND by Dave McKenzie, 'why not earlier', and it betrayed a lack of a coherent plan to win the stage, which came back to hurt Matthews' chances of victory by the finish. Fellow commentator Matt Keenan later nominated the team and Matthews as having delivered, and from a strength expended standpoint, yes, they rode very impressively. The main problem was the lack of a decision to chase, then only coming to the fore when it was too late, and having to use up a number of riders just to bring the race close again.
The other teams came to the front from 50 kilometres to go, more to protect their own interests in the crosswinds after the peloton turned away from Valencia to ride along the Mediterranean coast. The breakaway wasn't brought back ahead of the final climb, still holding a chunk of their early large lead, a factor that would come into play late.
BikeExchange had some very bad luck as Zeits got knocked off by a rider who had overestimated the width of the road, holding up some of his teammates in the process. That may have taken some teammates away from Matthews and he arrived into the base of the climb well behind the leaders. The TV pictures weren't entirely clear, but he certainly wasn't in the front 20 riders on the fast-paced acceleration up the early slopes.
The 30-year-old managed to fight his way past dropping riders and emerged onto the back of a group of favourites, though they were fighting their own general classification and weren't chasing the breakaway, still up the road with some portion of their earlier seven-minute lead which should never have been.
Matthews saw the stage win riding away from him with Cort still clear, and little impetus from the GC riders watching each other, and decided to risk getting swamped from behind as he went for less than optimal tactics, a surge from longer range. He got a gap, but in the end, it was more of a launching pad for Roglič, as the defending Vuelta champion timed his surge from where Matthews would have gone ideally, nearly catching Cort on the line.
“I started quite far back on the bottom of the final two-kilometre climb, I had to make up a few fair spots which was unfortunate," said Matthews. "But once I caught the front of the bunch, I could tell that the GC guys were more looking at each other than anything else so I thought the only chance to go for the stage win instead of second place was to hit out then.
"So I tried, I could have also just stayed in the bunch and finished the stage in second place but we are here to win, so it was all or nothing today.”
I don't think any Australian fan would say that Matthews provided 'nothing' on the Alto de Cullera, his performances are always entertaining. However, in this case, you have to wonder if Cort had not been up the road, would there be a first 2021 win for Matthews?
There's no one that would feel this more keenly than 'Bling', he rides with his heart on his sleeve and has at times looked utterly spent after finishing close to the victory. Opportunities abound in the remaining Vuelta stages, the floodgates could well open after the first win, but you just sense it might need that small reversal of fortune, situation or tactics from the team to help Matthews to that first massive victory.
The Vuelta a España continues with Stage 7 a mountainous day in the saddle for the riders from Gandía to Balcón de Alicante over 152 kilometres. The broadcast on SBS VICELAND and SBS OnDemand starts at the earlier time of 2120 AEST, with the SKODA Tour Tracker starting at 2105 AEST.
