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Aussies underdogs at world cycling champs

Roger VaughanAAP
Aussie cycling team boss Mat Hayman says Michael Matthews (pic) can win the world road championship.
Camera IconAussie cycling team boss Mat Hayman says Michael Matthews (pic) can win the world road championship. Credit: EPA

When two dogs fight over a bone, a third one carries it away.

While this is a Dutch proverb, the origin is close enough for Australian team boss Mat Hayman ahead of Sunday's world road championships in the cycling heartland of Flanders.

Australia's top hopes Caleb Ewan and Michael Matthews will start as outsiders in the men's elite road race.

Ewan is still working back up to top form after his badly broken collarbone in the Tour de France took longer than expected to heal.

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Matthews, for the first time in his professional career, is yet to win a race this season.

But Hayman's point is this could well be the race for a surprise winner.

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The 268km men's elite road race, set deep in Belgian one-day classics country, is certain to be chaotic and uncontrollable.

Apart from a course that will guarantee an unpredictable race, Hayman and the other team managers will not have radio communication with their riders.

"I don't think anybody would bat an eyelid if Michael Matthews won the world championship," Hayman told AAP.

"Everyone would say 'oh, of course, that guy has always been good, he's always been around the mark.

"But he's not the guy in form at the moment and that's great - let (Sonny) Colbrelli and Wout van Aert and Mathieu van der Poel fight it out and we'll be there.

"When two dogs fight over a bone the third one runs away with it, the Dutch say."

All eyes will be on van Aert, the Belgian ace who finished second in the world time trial earlier this week and is racing in his backyard.

Colbrelli (Italy) and van der Poel (Netherland) will also be key players.

If Matthews and Ewan need any inspiration in their underdog status ahead of Sunday, they only need to look at the career highlight of their team manager.

In 2016 Hayman became only the second Australian to win the Paris-Roubaix classic, just six weeks after breaking his arm in a race crash.

"Especially without radios and (with) this circuit, being that little bit more open and free and being a bit more aggressive seems to pay off," Hayman said.

"It is taking a risk.

"The moral (of Paris-Roubaix) is that I was relaxed and open to opportunity - and that's a nice way to go into a bike race."

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