Michael Matthews talks about his relationship with Tadej Pogacar: “When we’re at home, we train together most days, but we never talk about race strategy.”

Michael Matthews and Tadej Pogacar may be rivals in the Classics, but they have become one of the biggest cycling bromances in recent years, working together all the time and even taking the same car to races.

“We went for a ride together after one of the races we did together, and it was great.” “Sometimes you meet people like that and you just click with them right away,” Matthews said about how the friendship started when he talked to Velo. “We both love riding bikes and having fun, and we both enjoy the whole training process.” When we train, we fight and run against each other. We love what we do, so I guess that makes us like big kids. We’re so happy with what we do every day. We both train the same way and like the same things.

For the simple reason that they both live in France, Matthews and Pogacar often get together to race. “Most days when we’re both at home, we work out together.” The Australian from Team Jayco AlUla says, “We train in a similar way and are pretty flexible with what we do.” “We’ve never been afraid to go out too hard and blow ourselves up, and we feel what we feel at the time.” We’re very spontaneous and never follow a plan too closely. When it comes to training, a lot of pros stick to their plans and do everything exactly as written, but we’re open. We ride our bikes for fun. We don’t mind if someone wants to go in a certain direction.

Pogacar is a Grand Tour hopeful, and Matthews is a sprinter/puncher. On paper, though, there aren’t many races where both of them are trying to win. Because Pogacar is so smart in every way, this does happen sometimes. For example, at this year’s Milano-Sanremo, Matthews and Pogacar both ended on the podium after carpooling to the race, though Jasper Philipsen won.

“We race whenever we want to.” There aren’t any gifts. I have to guess what his plan is and build my race around it. He’s very good, so we know when he strikes, it will be strong and hard to bring him back. The Aussie says, “But I need to race my race, and I hope my team can help me as much as they can.” He also makes it clear that no secrets are shared when they train together. “When we’re together, we never talk about race.”

It looks like both Mathews and Pogacar will be going after Milano-Sanremo again in 2025. “This is my goal race for the whole of my career. It’s very tough.” “It broke my heart to lose it by just a few centimeters this year,” says Matthews. “I’m good at this race, but look at the guys who haven’t won it yet.” Sagan was a world champion three times, but he never won it.

“You just have to hope that everything works out in that race. You have to make the right move at the right time.” You’ll have to wait another year if it doesn’t. He ends by saying, “It’s a race where you can never tell what will happen.” “Yes, you’d say he (Pogacar) will win it at some point in his career, but it’s hard to say how, when, or which year.” I hope I win it too!”