Michael Matthews hits out at UCI points system: 'For me, it’s destroying cycling'

For Matthews, the most consequential change in the sport sits in the rankings. “Honestly, that’s what, for me, is really killing cycling, is these points,” he said in the Roadman Podcast. In his view, the consequences go beyond tactics and calendars. They cut into the basic pitch of the sport to casual fans. “You see so many teams now, not just Astana, but a lot of teams setting up their roster now to have as many as they can racing each other, and how does that make a team environment?” 

He is not claiming teams have stopped trying. He is saying the incentives have changed what trying looks like. “Their goal now is to have as many in the top ten,” Matthews says, describing a version of racing where collecting places can matter more than hunting wins. 

For him, the most damaging part is how it reads from the outside. “You’re trying to make fans of cycling understand that it’s a team sport, but then you see in a finish three sprinters from the same team sprinting against each other,” he says. 

Matthews does not dress it up. “For me, it’s destroying cycling. I totally disagree with this 100%.”

That is one change. Sprinting is another. Pure top end speed still matters, but Matthews says it no longer decides as much as it used to. “These days, sprinting is not really like that anymore,” he says. “For me to win a sprint… I need to be the fittest guy at the finish of a harder group.” 

It is why he does not frame his chances around a straight bunch finish. “I’m not gonna win a bunch sprint, let’s say, against the Philipsens and these sorts of guys,” Matthews explains. “So I need to get through a harder race and be the strongest guy with the best legs in that finish.”

He also has little appetite for the old style of mass sprinting. “I honestly just don’t really like the bunch sprints anymore,” he says. “You have to have a strong lead out… otherwise you’re just in the washing machine… and it’s just chaos.” 

At the same time, he argues that sprinters have been forced to become more complete. “Everyone sort of learnt that being a pure sprinter these days is sort of a dying sort of breed,” he says, pointing to riders like Philipsen as examples of a new, more durable sprint type. And he links it back to the bigger trend: fewer clear sprint chances in the Tour, and a peloton shaped by UAE and Pogacar’s habit of riding “full gas” even on sprint days.

He thinks the move away from traditional sprint stages is also driven by what organisers believe people will watch. “If it’s not exciting for spectators… what’s the point of it?” Matthews adds.

Matthews, who already took a victory in 2026 by winning Gran Premio Castellón, also talks about what it feels like to race alongside the sport’s dominant figures, like Tadej Pogacar and Mathieu van der Poel.

In Matthews’ telling, their dominance is not only physical. It is psychological, and sometimes it is quiet. He picks out one detail from a Tour of Flanders story involving Fred Wright. Wright had clung on when the move with Van der Poel and Pogacar came across, and he described it as almost humiliating, like being dragged along without ever being treated as part of the race.

Matthews recognises the dynamic immediately. When the favourites rotate through and never even look at you, it lands as a message, especially when everyone is already on their hands and knees. “He doesn’t even care that I’m here, so he doesn’t even consider me as a factor,” he says. “I’m not even gonna look at you because I don’t even consider you a threat.”

He argues those head games now extend beyond the race itself. “All the Strava times,” he says, noting it is not just Pogacar. “Van der Poel does the same. Wout does the same.” For Matthews, it is part self motivation and part signalling, a way of letting the rest of the peloton know what is coming. “They use that as extra boost for themselves, but also to show the other guys, like, ‘I’m flying.’”