“The doctors said that if I'd done the same training for another two to three days, I probably would have killed myself.”
Standing on the start line of GP Quebec is going to mean more to Michael Matthews than anyone else in the peloton on Friday. Once, as a three-time winner of this race, the Jayco-Alula rider might have felt the pressure to perform. He might have been nervous about living up to expectations, about defending his title in Canada, about his power numbers or heart rate data. This year, though, Matthews is happy to have the simple chance to be here at all.
He tells the story as it happened: “One day I was doing altitude training like I normally do, and the next day I was in hospital. I was maybe one-and-a-half weeks into my three week camp and I couldn’t really breathe. I got a sharp, stabbing pain in my chest and I just kept training thinking it was allergies as they were cutting the grass, and I do get bad allergies,” Matthews reflects.
“It kept getting worse and worse and I kept trying to train through it. I got to the end of my camp and had hard efforts and it wasn’t even possible to do one. I got head spins and fell off the bike riding uphill. We stopped the training, drove to a hospital in Switzerland where they did a test and found blood clots in my body. They did scans and found they were in my lungs. I spent days in hospital, three months on blood thinners.”
Image: James Startt/GPCQM
The Michael Matthews who began that altitude camp in June is not the same person that is speaking two days before GP Quebec is due to begin. His experience this year has altered not just him, but his entire outlook on professional bike racing, and where that fits into his wider existence. The Australian is acutely aware of how close he came to having everything taken away from him – this is something that changes a man.
“I enjoy it more than just going year by year like I had before. It puts everything into perspective how quickly your career can finish. It has made me reflect on the life we get to live as professional cyclists,” he comments.
“It is such a beautiful life and to feel that taken away from you overnight was quite scary. Just to be here on the back of the start line of a race that has been so nice to me in the past and to compete with the best guys in the world, that is what I live for.”
Matthews confirmed that he is under doctor’s orders to keep taking blood thinners until after GP Montreal on Sunday, but is keen to stress that his Jayco-Alula team put him under no pressure to return to racing this season. The Australian rider’s intrinsic drive for success – something that has fuelled his 43 career victories so far – means that he was hungry to get back on the start line as soon as it was safe to do so. Since he returned to the peloton at the end of August, Matthews has already achieved a top-10 finish in the Bretagne Classic; a formidable comeback considering the circumstances which had led to that race.
Image: Zac Williams/SWpix.com
“I worked super hard. I had three months where I had nothing to do and the team doctors were telling me that if I didn’t want to train and if I really wanted to just focus on the recovery and make sure everything goes perfectly, they were fine with that,” Matthews explains.
“But for me, I wanted to come back to racing this year. I wanted to compete and I wanted to test my body on what I was still capable of doing. The training that I did was really good. It was some of my best training, so let's see if I can turn that into racing.”
If there is one race that Matthews can head to with extreme confidence, it is GP Quebec – he is defending champion after producing a stunning sprint in last year’s edition from a reduced bunch after a testing day on the city’s punchy climbs. He’s aware that modifications to this year’s course mean that the race is more demanding, but still takes confidence in what he did in Canada last season.
“Last year was beautiful, everyone was really looking at Tadej [Pogačar] which played into my hands a little bit as I could ride my own race. I was maybe lucky that the break came back but in the end I finished first and had a good sprint. Hopefully I have some more legs on Friday,” he smiles.
“I obviously have amazing memories here, I won both Quebec and Montreal in 2018 and that was obviously a massive thing for me. Once I figured out how to win here in Quebec, let's say it came a bit easier after that.”
Whether he adds a fourth title at GP Quebec to his name in 2025 or not, though, Matthews will not forget the road he has been on to get here. He has come face to face with the terrifying prospect of losing it all. Now, he has the chance to win again, but that’s no longer just what it is about.
“I think I'll be here just doing the best I can do with the situation I've been in this year,” he says. “I'm honestly just happy to be on the start line on Friday and give what I have. I've trained really hard, so let's see what comes out of that.”
Cover image: Zac Williams/SWpix.com
