Orica GreenEdge;s Michael Matthews felt that he could not ask for anything more after winning the third stage of the 69th Vuelta a España.
Speaking to La Vuelta.com, Matthews said about winning the stage and taking the overall lead of the race: "I couldn’t ask for much more. We started as the favorite team today. It was up to us to ride all day. Unfortunately I had to use all my guys from the very beginning to bring the breakaway back.
"As you can see, the guys have totally spent themselves to bring me where I am now. It would have definitely been impossible to win without them. In the final, Kolobnev attacked,
"I didn’t think we’d catch him but Chris Froome went over the top to chase him down with Dan Martin on the wheel. It was up to me to jump on Dan Martin and hopefully come over him in the finale. I just got him in the finale. For me and for the team, it was a 110% effort, like we planned.
"I didn’t know from the start of the season that I was going to do the Giro or the Vuelta. My plan was just to do the Tour. The back-up plan has probably been better than I could expect. Everything happens for a reason. You get thrown into things [crashing before the Grand Départ of the Tour and being forced to withdraw after attending the teams presentation in Leeds]. You get smashed down sometimes but you just have to work hard in order to come back above the level you were at before.
This year I’ve shown that it’s not back above the level you were at before. This year I’ve shown that it’s not the end of the world if you crash. You can come back and be even stronger than you were before. You have to believe in your training and in yourself. With the team I have around me, not just the riders but the staff, all these guys are really motivated to get you back going after you’ve been pushed down like I was before the Tour de France.
"To be here in the red jersey and win a stage in this Vuelta, it’s a dream come true. I love Spain, I love this race. It’s such a nice race, riding through the whole of Spain. I can’t ask for much more out of this race for myself but… keeping the red jersey, I haven’t looked that far ahead yet. There are around ten stages that suit my capabilities, so hopefully there are a few more stages for me to win after this one. I hope I haven’t used all my energy on the stage today. At the moment I’m just so happy with what we delivered today. From now on, everything is a bonus. It wasn’t the plan to have the red jersey. We were going for a stage win but now we also have the red jersey out of the stage win. We got me in the team but we also have our GC riders like Chaves and our little climber Adam Yates, so hopefully there are some more stage wins to get. I want to beat the other sprinters again. I’ve shown that I’m in good form. Yesterday in the finale, it was just a bit of bad luck. It was not our fault that I wasn’t in the top three yesterday. It was a chaotic finale. In the next couple of stages, we’ll be fighting for more stage wins and try to hold the red jersey for as long as possible."