00:00To give him his trophy, the mayor of Quebec, Mr. Bruno Marchand.
00:18And the return of the bouquet of flowers by Sandrine, Michael Mathews, who points to the sky for his grandmother who disappeared last week.
00:25Ladies and gentlemen, your Quebec City podium winner, 24th, 2024, Mathews, Guillaumet, Moulin.
00:55A real kick left in their sprint. So when the bunch all moved to the left, I saw an opportunity to open up my sprint on the right.
01:02And I guess no one probably expected someone to go from that early.
01:06And I knew I didn't have the peak power today, but had a really long sprint.
01:10And I knew I had the power to do a 15, 20 second sprint today.
01:15I remember two days ago when some of the headliners were in that room where everyone was around Taddej, who's a good buddy of yours.
01:26And you were basically by yourself as if, you know, Michael Mathews, nobody remembered Michael Mathews in Quebec City.
01:32I mean, Taddej is the number one cyclist in the world at the moment.
01:36He's done some things this year that we've never seen in cycling before.
01:40So I totally understand that. I'm a fan of him also.
01:43So I think when he comes to Canada, it's not so often.
01:46And I understand that the fans love him and he's great for the sport.
01:50But yeah, for me, I'm just here to do my job, which is to win the race.
01:53It doesn't matter how many interviews I have. As long as I win the race, that's what's most important.
01:58Is there a certain feeling of relief because this is a win that you were looking for in 2000 or in 2024?
02:07Yeah, I mean, I had a really good start to the year, but sort of since Flanders with my disqualification in that sprint,
02:14my head rolled off a little bit, honestly, with the Tour de France and the Olympics.
02:18I was trying to make up for that unfortunate relegation.
02:21And yeah, to bounce back here with the lead up to the World Championships with a win here in Quebec, it's incredible.
02:28I think it's something we've been working for as a team.
02:31And I mean, since the Olympics till now, I've worked so hard to pull off this victory today.
02:36It's full credit to my team, my family and everyone around.
02:41And my grandma actually passed away last week.
02:45Last week, Wednesday, her funeral was this Wednesday in Canberra in Australia.
02:49So this victory is for her.
02:51All right, Michael Matthews, listen, congratulations on a third overall win in Quebec City.
02:58We'll see you in the protocol and hopefully we see you on the podium in Montreal.
03:02Who knows you won there before?
03:04Yeah, unfortunately, it was a different race in Montreal when I won.
03:07But yeah, I think now with the teams here, with the climbers they have here, it's going to be very difficult.
03:12But we've also got Simon Yates. If it's too hard for me, he's an amazing climber and he loves this race too in Montreal.
03:17So, yeah, we've got a great duo of me and Simon and hopefully one of us can be on the podium on Sunday also.
03:24Thank you, Michael. See you two days from now.
03:26Thanks very much. Thanks, guys.
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