Matthews and Gerrans clear the air after Worlds fallout

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Michael Matthews has played down the notion that there's animosity between himself and teammate Simon Gerrans stemming from the pair's performance in the World Championships road race last month.

With Peter Sagan taking a solo victory, Matthews won the sprint for the silver medal but was left disappointed by the lack of clear designation of which rider was Australia's team leader and protected rider.

"I think we were sprinting against each other unfortunately," he told Cyclingnews when asked if he had received any support from Gerrans - also a teammate at Orica-GreenEdge. "I would have liked the full support but it is what it is."

Former cyclist Robbie McEwen spoke in the aftermath about a rift between the pair and suggested the two could not cooperate properly together in the same team. However, Matthews, speaking to Fairfax Media on Thursday, believes the air has been cleared and there is no lingering issue between the pair. 

"I don't regret anything I said. I think I said what needed to be said, and we talked after the race and cleared it all up," said Matthews. 

"With what Robbie said about a rift, I think it's all cleared now. Everyone's said what they've wanted to say… we're all professional bike riders, we're all there for a reason: we all want to win when there's an opportunity to win. I wasn't too happy about the comment because obviously we're both winners, me and Simon, so we both saw an opportunity to win the world championship, so we both wanted to go for it.

"I don't think it's going to create any barrier between me and Gerrans. It's all sorted, we both respect each other as riders, so I think we just move on and hopefully achieve more goals." 

Despite being keen to move on and consign the episode in the past, Matthews is still trenchant in his belief that the Australian approach to the Worlds race was wrong and hopes the situation won't come to pass again. 

"I think what I've got to take out of it is that my performance was really good. I did everything that I said I was going to do in the race. I was going really well but I missed the move of Sagan, which was the key move in the end," said Matthews. 

"The sprint was the way it was… so now we just move on to next year and hopefully we don't make the same mistake again."