I left Orica to win races, says Michael Matthews

RODEZ

Michael Matthews said on Saturday he'd had to quit the Australian Orica team to improve his chances of winning races.

Matthews won the 14th stage of the Tour de France, dominating Olympic champion Greg Van AVermaet in an uphill sprint finish in Rodez.

Afterwards the Aussie said it was due to moving away from Orica to Germans Sunweb that had made the difference.

"For sure, one of the reasons I changed to this team, Sunweb, was because they were willing to give me a lot of guys to support me in races like this," said the 26-year-old, known as 'Bling' by his peers for his flashy lifestyle.

"Orica had different goals, so I decided to come here where I'll get a lot of opportunities.

"It's been a great experience so far with a great group of guys."

Matthews actually won a Tour stage last year with Orica, with whom he also won stages at the Giro d'Italia and Vuelta a Espana, the other two Grand Tours.

But Orica have targeted overall success with young Briton Simon Yates, currently seventh overall, with his twin brother Adam having finished fourth overall last year.

Orica also have talented Colombian climber Esteban Chaves, who although struggling at the Tour this year, was second in last year's Giro and then third at the Vuelta.

But now with a team used to dedicating its efforts to sprint finishes — Sunweb won four sprint stages in each of 2013 and 2014 with Marcel Kittel — Matthews feels he has more chances to shine.

Even French climber Warren Barguil, who won his first Tour stage on Friday on Bastille Day, was put to Matthews's service.

"We put all the eggs in the baskets for me today. Even Warren went back to get the bottles with 30km to go and managed to get back to the peloton when riders were getting dropped."

It made for an incredible couple of days for the Sunweb team after Barguil's stage 13 victory.

"I'm relieved, happy, amazed — there's a few really nice words I can say but in the end I'm just super happy to get this win for the team," added Matthews.

"They've been working so hard in this Tour de France, to get two in a row, we couldn't have asked for a better two days."

Matthews took 30 points on the line towards the green sprinters' jersey competition but remains 99 points behind Kittel, a winner already of five stages at this Tour.

And the Australian admitted he has little chance of winning that jersey.

"He's still quite a long way in front with those flat sprints, he's won almost every one of them," said Matthews.

"It's always an uphill battle with 50 points on (offer to the winner on) flat stages and 30 points on these ones (intermediate stages).

"We'll have to keep trying and see what comes. It's not over until Paris."