{"id":362321,"date":"2024-01-24T05:04:39","date_gmt":"2024-01-24T06:04:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=362321"},"modified":"2024-01-24T07:02:42","modified_gmt":"2024-01-24T07:02:42","slug":"evans-touts-aussie-cycling-star-for-olympic-redemption","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=362321","title":{"rendered":"Evans touts Aussie cycling star for Olympic redemption"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australian cycling<\/a> legend Cadel Evans<\/a>\ufeff has thrown up Michael Matthews as the leading contender for the country's Paris 2024<\/a> men's road race, some three years after the Canberra product was left "devastated" by his Tokyo Games<\/a> snubbing.<\/p>\n

Asked on Nine's Australian Open<\/a> coverage which Australian cyclists to look out for en route to the Olympics<\/a>, Evans said Matthews and Grace Brown had an edge on their competitors in the selection battle.<\/p>\n

Australia will be represented by a maximum of four athletes in the men's road race and four women in the women's road race.<\/p>\n

FOLLOW LIVE:<\/strong> Australian Open 2024 day 11<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

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"\ufeffThe Australian team will leave selection to as late as possible," said Evans, a four-time Olympian and the 2011 Tour de France champion.<\/p>\n

"At this point, looking at the course I'd say Michael Matthews in the men's, Grace Brown for the women's in the road race would be the first picks we'd be looking to.<\/p>\n

"But of course them staying healthy, being in form, avoiding injuries and so on \u2014 there's still a long way to go in that regard yet."<\/p>\n

\"Australian<\/p>\n

Matthews\ufeff won stage 14 of the 2022 Tour de France and stage three of the 2023 Giro d'Italia, but has never contested the Olympics.<\/p>\n

He thought he'd done enough to be picked for the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, but \ufeffonly Richie Porte, Lucas Hamilton and Luke Durbridge were selected for the men's road race.<\/p>\n

"When you make a criteria for a selection for a road race and you don't stick to it once you've made that criteria I don't really agree with [it]," Matthews told The Canberra Times in July 2021.<\/p>\n

"I'm obviously devastated, but they make the selection."<\/p>\n

\"Cadel<\/p>\n

Matthews encountered more hurdles when he was involved in three crashes during last year's Tour de Flanders in Belgium. One crash left him with a quadriceps tear, torn knee and sprained ankle, and forced him into a wheelchair.<\/p>\n

Last year also brought a training crash\ufeff and two bouts of COVID-19.<\/p>\n

"The Olympics are definitely a big goal; firstly, to make the team, and then secondly, to do a top result," Matthews told the publication Cyclingnews this week.<\/p>\n

"I've never done the Olympics so that will be something special.<\/p>\n

"It seems the course really suits me well, so that'll definitely be a massive goal. I think the Paris course suits my style of riding, that aggressive style. With just 90 or so riders and small teams, it's going to be a little bit less predictable, which I really liked."<\/p>\n

The Paris 2024 men's and women's\ufeff road races will be 273 kilometres, beginning and finishing at the Trocadero.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Australian cycling legend Cadel Evans\ufeff has thrown up Michael Matthews as the leading contender for the country's Paris 2024 men's road race, some three years […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":362323,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362321"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=362321"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362321\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":362326,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362321\/revisions\/362326"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/362323"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=362321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=362321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=362321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}