Despite taking two stage wins in his debut Grand Tour at the 2013 Vuelta a Espana, it was at the 2014 Giro that Michael Matthews really announced himself as a big star with his stage win and spirited defence of the Maglia Rosa. He spoke to Cyclingnews about his upcoming return to the scene of his best results last year.

“The work is pretty much all done up to this point. It's just a few days of sprint training and a little bit of motorpacing and just the final 'one percenters' before the race starts really. I haven't checked out any of the stages yet but we go and do it Wednesday and Thursday with the team all together so we all know what we are in for.”

Matthews targeted stage six to Montecassino last year and nailed it, taking the win after surviving a huge crash at the bottom of the final climb, leaving him and Cadel Evans with just Tim Wellens and Matteo Rabottini at the line. Now he says that stage four is interesting him.

“Stage four is my biggest target for the moment. It's the one that probably suits me the best in the first week. That's the one I am aiming for but the stages before that also suit me really well but it will depend on what the team wants to do and who we ride for, what the strategy is.”

Matthews has had a stunning season so far, winning stages in both the Basque Country and Paris-Nice and taking third in Amstel Gold and Milan-Sanremo, also a second in Brabantse Pijl. He says his confidence going into the Giro is sky high.

“My confidence has probably doubled from last year going into the Giro, especially as I know what I am in for at the Giro now and the start of the season that I've had has almost gone 100% to plan, other than a few of the third places. We've basically ticked all the boxes leading into the Giro like we planned compared to last year when we didn't tick so many boxes so my confidence has definitely doubled this year knowing what I know from last year and the experiences I had like the stage win in the pink jersey. It's definitely a confidence booster going into the 2015 Giro.”

Despite his success last year, Matthews didn’t finish the race, and says he isn’t going to guarantee that he does so this year either, but says he would like to do so, but the Tour de France is another objective for him.

“It's always the aim to finish the full three weeks but you have to see how much it is taking out of you because the Giro is such a tough stage race. It's the toughest stage race in the world to finish, and for a rider like me that's not a mountain goat like the other little climbers, it's quite a difficult one to finish. I'll do my best to get as far as possible and see how it goes.”

When asked what a successful Giro would be to him, Matthews said that repeating a stage win and stint in pink like he did last year would certainly go down well.

“The pink jersey would be nice again for at least a few days but I am more focused on stage wins. It was nice to have the jersey last year but stage wins are probably more key this year.”

“It's hard to really put a number on how many stages you want to win because we are not really sure who we are going to ride for though the Giro so I'll start with one stage win and go from there.”

If he can finish, his ability as a rider who climbs and sprints well could put him in the frame for the points jersey, which he held for a few days last year. But he says he puts wins ahead of jerseys just now.

“I guess I'll focus on stage wins before the jersey and if I end up with a lot of points and in the jersey then I'll start aiming for that. With the team we have, it's quite a multi-tasking team with a lot of guys who can go for stage wins so I'll go for as many stages as possible then from there see about the points jersey.”