Michael Matthews (Orica-GreenEDGE) finally took his first win since his victory in the final stage of the 2014 Vuelta a Espana when he won today's Vuelta a la Rioja in a sprint finish. Having used his strong Orica-GreenEDGE team to control the entire race, he held off last year's winner Francesco Lasca (Caja Rural) and Carlos Barbero (Euskadi) in the final dash to the line to improve on last year's second place in the race.

One year ago Michael Matthews was frustratingly beaten into second by Francesco Lasca in the Vuelta a la Rioja but today he got his revenge over the fast Italian who has just come back from injury. When the race came down to another sprint finish, the Australian finally managed to capitalize on the great form he had shown in Paris-Nice to hold off Lasca in the final dash to the line.

Orica-GreenEDGE had done nothing to hide that they were in Rioja with a clear plan for their fast sprinter. Right from the beginning of the race, they controlled the situation and when a 7-rider group went clear, they made sure to keep things under control.

They timed their work to perfection when they brought things back together less than six kilometres from the finish and from there nothing could prevent a big bunch sprint. A crash brought down Simon Gerrans and so hampered Matthews' opportunities but he and the rest of the team were strong enough to finish off the work without the Australian champion.

When the sprint was launched, Matthews again went head to head with Lasca but this time the outcome was the opposite of what it had been 12 months ago. Carlos Barbero (Euskadi) crossed the line in third.

Many of today's riders - including Matthews - will be back in action when the Spanish season continues with one of its highlights the Vuelta al Pais Vasco which kicks off with a very hard stage tomorrow in Ordizia.

One for the sprinters

The 164.7km Vuelta a la Rioja started and finished in Logrono and was held on a lumpy course that had two categorized climbs in the final half of the race. From the top of the final one, however, 42.6km remained and they were almost entirely flat, meaning that a bunch sprint was expected.

The race was off to a very fast start as several riders wanted to deny the sprinters. The first promising attack was launched by Luis Mas (Caja Rural) and Dario Hernandez (Burgos) but they were brought back at the 13km mark.

A big group

Mas refused to give up and a dangerous situation occurred when a big group suddenly found itself with a 55-second gap after 19km of racing. Joining Mas were Igor Anton, Pablo Lastras, Jesus Herrada (Movistar), Pello Bilbao (Caja Rural), Christian Meier, Damien Howson (Orica-GreenEDGE), Jesus Del Pino (Burgos), Haritz Orbe, Miguel Minguez (Euskadi), Evgeny Shalunov (Lokosphinx) Cesar Fonte (Radio Popular), Raul Garcia (Louletano), Jaume Rovira (Ecuador), and Andres Vigil (Keith Mobel).

The group contested the first intermediate sprint, with Mas beating Orbe and Bilbao but as there was no cooperation the group was brought back after 26km of racing. Bilbao won the second sprint ahead of Vigil and Michael Albasini (Orica-GreenEDGE) and shortly after, 6 riders had taken off.

The break takes off

Bilbao, Minguez, Garcia, Rovira and Vigil were again part of the action and this time they were joined by David Belda (Burgos). The peloton slowed down and allowed the gap to grow to 2.30 before Orica GreenEDGE took control.

The Australians allowed the gap to reach 3.45 after 65km of racing and then started to slowly bring it down. At the bottom of the first climb, it was 2.50 but as they took it easy on the ascent, it was 3.00 by the time Minguez beat Belda, Rovira and Garcia at the top.

The gap comes down

The order of passage was the same at the top of the second climb as the gap was now down to 2.05. At the final sprint 23km from the finish, the group was only 1.03 ahead as Bilbao beat Garcia and Belda on the line.

17km from the finish, it was down to 50 seconds but the escapees did a really good job to stay clear. Orica-GreenEDGE couldn't close it down until they were inside the final 6km but finally it all got back together for a sprint finish.

A crash for Gerrans briefly threatened to ruin the race for Orica-GreenEDGE but Matthews kept his calm. In the final sprint he held off Lasca to get his revenge and take his first win of the season.