After another brilliant showing in the Worlds Road Race, Michael Matthews is winding down his last season with Orica-BikeExchange at the Abu Dhabi Tour. The Australian talent already has his eyes on 2017, where he will ride with Giant-Sunweb and will try to win his first Green Jersey at the Tour de France.

In order to take Green, he must dethrone five-time winner Peter Sagan, who just won his second straight Worlds. Matthews says there is no dount he and the Slovak are similar riders.

“We go for the same sort of targets … He can probably pull off more flat sprint stages than me, but I am learning to try to do that because if you want to try and go for the [Tour de France] green jersey, you have got to be up there in the flat sprints. That is something I need to work on … just my positioning in the big bunch sprints, but I guess we are similar styled riders,” he told VeloNews from Abu Dhabi.

“And in most races too — whether it’s an intermediate climbing stage or a pure flat stage — he is always giving his best. Like me … if we see an opportunity to go for the win we give it everything. And I guess that is what people like about the sort of riders that we are.”

Matthews, who was brilliant in the Race to the Sun this year, says his two straight wins in the Green Jersey competition at Paris-Nice give him the belief he can take the big one at the Tour.

“I have won it two years in a row at Paris-Nice. I know it’s not the Tour de France, but it’s a big race to try and get preparation to try to win it in the Tour,” Matthews said. “Hopefully I can go to the Tour next year with good legs and a team that is going to support me in Giant. I am sure it will be exciting for the people watching because we are riders that if it is a mountain stage, we will go in the break and try to win the green jersey point. I think it is going to be a battle all the way to the end.”

Matthews admits that it will be difficult to say good bye to his current employers, who he has spent the last four years with and won a stage in each Grand Tour at.

“It’s been an amazing four years and I really enjoyed myself,” he said of his time with Orica. “I learned a lot from the guys in the team and the staff. I made some really good friends, really close friends, other Australians that I didn’t really know too well before, but who now I have worked with for the last four years … yeah, it’s going to be a bit hard to leave, but also a fresh start in Giant is going to be really special. They have got a really good clear view for me for the next three years and I’m really looking forward to it.”