Having not raced since September last year, Orica Greenedge fast man Michael Matthews has undergone lots of training and hopes to see immediate rewards for his efforts at Paris-Nice.

“I think more the importance was using a longer off-season to train,” Matthews said to SBS Cycling Central. “When I get to my real goal I know I’ve done so much base that I can get there and go full gas, instead of only having one month off the bike and then basically one month to prepare for my whole season. That isn’t really long enough and you don’t really have the base that you need to do these big races. This year I had four months to really prepare, which I think should last through the whole season now with the strength and endurance that I have.”

The Australian, who specializes in harder bunch finishes, is looking to take his first ever win at Paris-Nice and is putting faith in his hard work and his team, both fellow riders and coaches, to deliver him a result, despite the stiff competition he faces. He knows it will be hard to beat men like Bouhanni, Greipel, Kristoff and Degenkolb.

“These last four months has all come down to this point,” he said. “I trust in (the staff) that they did everything they could to give me all the right directions. All I needed to do was just pedal so I guess I had the easy part, really. They had the hard part of telling me what to do and when to do it.”

“I’m really confident in how I’m going and it should be hopefully a good race and exciting to watch.”