Game on for Australia's Goss

Team CSC's Matthew Goss is making steps into the top ranks of professional cycling at the young age of 21. The Australian battled the winds in Flanders to achieve a podium spot in semi-classic Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne, but as he explained to Cyclingnews' Gregor Brown, wins are expected to come.

When Matthew Goss signed for Team CSC in the fall of 2006 he was a 19 year-old, but in 2007 the Denmark-based team let him learn the ropes alongside some of its big guns and the results are now showing. In the opening weekend of the Classics season, he made his mark with a third place in Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne.

Goss explained how he came from the Australian island state of Tasmania to the hard-man's in Europe's big single-day races. "The cycling community [in Tasmania] is not so big on professional road cycling," he stated. "It is good and it has become bigger thanks to the Tasmanian Institute of Sport and the Australian Institute of Sport; you get the chance to race nationally and then internationally with them."

Goss found the bike thanks to an injury while competing in Australian Rules football. The doctor told him riding would be the best way to heal his sore knee, but instead of sitting still on a stationary bike Goss started going out riding with his neighbour, who raced on the track. "For the most part I got my start racing on the track," noted Goss.

Read the full interview.