'Bling boogie' is born as Matthews celebrates first WorldTour win

 

Visit our Stage 3 photo gallery HERE

Matthews upstaged a world class field of more experienced rivals vaulting clear on the uphill finish at the end of today's 129km Colemans Group Stage 3 of the Santos Tour Down Under into Stirling. His turn of speed relegated defending Tour champion Andre Greipel (Omega Pharma-Lotto) into second place with Stage One winner Tasmanian Matthew Goss (HTC-Highroad) third.

Matthews crossed the line in a time of 3:11:47 and picked up a ten second bonus while Goss' third place earned him a four second bonus to put him back into the Santos ochre leader's jersey. But Greipel is only two seconds behind him and Matthews is one of three riders four seconds off the lead.

The young sprinter, who won the under 23 road race at last year's World Championships in Geelong, timed his final attack to perfection scampering up the left hand side of the road close to the barriers and surging clear. He even had time to begin his celebratory 'Bling boogie' as he crossed the line.

"It's unbelievable," said Matthews who rode the event last year with the UniSA-Australia national team. "This is probably one of the most difficult stages I've ridden and one of the most difficult in this tour. It's really great to win this one and thanks to my team.

"They worked very well today (and) I couldn't have done without them," said Matthews whose penchant for flash jewellery and body piercings earned him the nickname 'Bling'.

"With about a lap to go I wasn't feeling too good, but my team came back and geed me up, they were amazing to me the whole race, getting me motivated for the sprint, saying I could do it," said Matthews who claimed a the bronze medal in the elite time trial at the recent Australian Championships. "In the last three or four kilometres Tom Leezer just led me to the front, I was sitting at fiftieth wheel at the back and he brought me straight to the front and put me in a great position for the sprint.

"With about one kilometre to go, I felt pretty good and I had a look around, there were only a couple of sprinters there. I was a bit worried about Gossy because he's really fast and he's won (a stage) already, but I had the legs in the end, I guess."

It was a double blow for defending champion Greipel who, found himself second on the stage and second overall.

"I am just upset because I couldn't do my sprint like I wanted to. The lead up guys boxed me in and I was next to the barrier and I couldn't launch my sprint, so it is upsetting for the team," said Greipel. "There are three stages to go and we still have an opportunity to win overall and that's what we're going for."

25 year old Goss did well to even be contesting the finish after a puncture ten kilometres from the line threatened to end his chance of Tour glory.

"The last 10km was super, super hard, I had a super-hard chase, we couldn't get the back wheel into my bike, so I had to change to my spare bike. I had a long chase just to get back and there was no respite on that hill, it was pretty nasty.

"(But) I wasn't too panicked, there were still 10-12km to go, I had time to get back in," said Goss. "The other guys are super-strong, Hayden Roulston did a great job for me today, Bernie Eisel did a great job to get me back to the bunch in the last few kilometres.

"I had nothing more to beat Matthews, he was too fast, too strong."

Goss now leads Greipel by two seconds for the overall tour lead. Queensland's Robbie McEwen is third, Matthews fourth and Britain's Ben Swift (Sky Procycling) fifth, all four seconds off the lead.

"It was a very hard way to get the jersey back, but I'm happy to be back in it," said Goss. "We'll be right for the rest of the week, yesterday was a bit disappointing, but you can't help crashes (and) there were a lot of people worse off than me."

One of those was his team mate British sprint star Mark Cavendish who started today heavily bandaged after sustaining skin abrasions, deep lacerations on his left side and a cut above his left eye when he crashed yesterday.

"I wasn't really in that much pain because I took pain killers, but that affects your guts it makes you a bit lethargic. I didn't feel good all day and we hit the finish and I couldn't hold on, that was it," added Cavendish.

Cavendish soldiered through the stage accompanied by enthusiastic encouragement from the 108 thousand fans who lined the race route and finished 12 minutes behind the stage winner.

The stage began from the trendy Adelaide suburb of Unley at a leisurely pace with the first ten kilometres riding through Adelaide's south eastern suburbs neutralised before the flag dropped to signal the race start.

Almost immediately a break went clear. Russian Aleksandr Kuschynski (Katusha), Spainiard Luis Pasamaontes (Movistar), Belgian Thomas de Gendt (Vacansoleil-DCM) and Australia's Luke Durbirdge (UniSA-Australia) established a lead on the peloton and by the time they reached the first Jayco intermediate sprint at McLaren Flat (31.3km) they were 2min50sec ahead.

Kuschynski won the sprint ahead of de Gendt with Durbridge third. The lead then stretched out to around five minutes before the main field began to set a tempo to reel them in. At the second intermediate sprint Kuschynski won again ahead of de Gendt with Pasamaontes third.

As Durbridge attacked up Germantown Hill (79km) to claim maximum points ahead of Pasamaontes and de Gendt at the only Skoda King of the Mountain contest of the day the lead was down to 2min20sec.

The quartet went through the finish arch at Stirling for the first time a chasing group of three riders, including South Australia's Tim Roe (BMC Racing Team) was 1min40sec behind and the peloton at 2min09sec.

But by the time the race returned to the arch to get the bell for one lap remaining (22 kilometres) the peloton had cranked up the pace to reel them in and set up a sprint finish for the strong men.

Friday's Mutual Community Stage 4 will take the race over 124 kilometres from the cosmopolitan eastern Adelaide suburb of Norwood over rolling hills and farming country to Strathalbyn, recognised as one of South Australia's lovliest towns.

Goss will wear the Santos ochre leader's jersey but also leads in the Jayco Sprint classification and the Cycle Instead Young Rider (U/26). So Russian Aleksandr Kuschynski (Katusha) is sitting in second on the sprint tally and will wear the Jayco jersey while Matthews will wear the young rider jersey as the second placed on that classification.

The Skoda King of the Mountains jersey remains on the shoulders of South Australian Luke Roberts (UniSA-Australia) and his team mate Luke Durbridge was named the Hindmarsh Most Aggressive Rider of the Day. In the Brilliant Blend team classification, Sky Procycling leads Movistar on a countback.

Two riders didn't start today as a result of yesterday's crashes. Tasmanian Bernard Sulzberger (UniSA-Australia) headed home to recover from a fractured right collar bone and Sydney's Chris 'CJ' Sutton of Sky Procycling was unable to start due to a deep cut in his knee that needed stitches and made it impossible for him to pedal.

Today official Race Doctor Peter Barnes treated two riders after a crash 18 kilometres from the finish. José Vicente Garcia lost a lot of skin after sliding on the road on his bottom and Russian Edouard Vorganov (Katusha) needed six stitches in his right hip. Sydney's Graeme Brown escaped unscathed from the same crash.