Michael Matthews, who is currently on holiday in the Maldives, has described his about his 2015 season as his best ever in an interview with Cyclingnews. The 25-year-old rider from Camberra had a great year with four victories and some podiums. He finished 2nd in the world road race championships a few weeks ago behind Peter Sagan (Tinkoff-Saxo).

He took also second place at the Grand Prix Cycliste du Québec. This spring he did some great performance with 3rd in Milan-San Remo behind John Degenkolb (Team Giant-Alpecin) and Alexander Kristoff (Katusha Team) and he was 3rd in the Amstel Gold Race : "I actually think that’s the beauty of the type of rider I am. I’m not just focused on flat sprints or on hilly stages. I can do a bit of everything and in races where it is going to be hard, that’s where I seem to excel. I find flat races and bunch sprints a little bit more difficult. Milan-San Remo and the Amstel Gold Race are very different, but I enjoy riding both of them."

"I went into the season with a few goals and aiming to have a few peaks, and I was able to achieve those goals", he added. "Unfortunately they weren’t all wins but they were close: I was on the podium in every single one day Classic that I was aiming for. I’ve got to be happy with that, considering where I was last year -not being around the mark in any of the Classics. That makes my season a success. 2015 was my best ever season."

He started two grand tours this season: the Giro d'Italia and the Tour de France. "The best thing about this year’s Giro d’Italia was doing it all back to back. We won the team time trial again, and we kept the pink jersey for three days after keeping it for five days last year. I also won a stage in the pink jersey in both years too. That’s huge for our team and made us one of the most successful teams in the race. It was something special."

He crashed during the first week of the French three-week race. But he had the strenght to finish the race. "The Tour de France reminded me why you always need to enjoy the good moments in cycling because unfortunately the bad parts do come along every now and again. I was really unfortunate to get caught behind the big crash on stage three this year. I broke three ribs, and that put me out of contention in the sprints. But I had good support from the Orica-GreenEdge staff to help me make the start each day and it definitely wouldn’t have been possible to make it through to Paris without their support and from the support back home."