It would make the perfect 31^st birthday present if he was to take out the men's road race in Belgium on Sunday night.

The Canberra cyclist admits it's been a stressful year as he goes in as one of Australia's two winning hopes, along with Caleb Ewan.

Matthews has the complete set of gold, silver and bronze in the team time trial, on top of the silver, bronze and fourth-place finishes in the men's road race.

That just leaves the top step of the podium for the man known as "Bling" to climb.

The wins have been elusive for Matthews this year, which is why he's not counted amongst the favourites to win the rainbow jersey.

He was in the mix for stage wins at the Vuelta a Espana - finishing third twice and fourth once - but as has been the case this season hasn't quite been able to cross the line first.

Matthews finished fourth at this year's Amstel Gold Race, as well as fifth and sixth respectively at Gent-Wevelgem and Milan-San Remo.

But he still goes in "quietly confident" he can produce his first victory since returning to Team BikeExchange this year.

"We're just missing that one medal. Hopefully this is the year," Matthews said.

"The pressure is always there in anything. I put the biggest pressure on myself.

"Every single race I go to I want to win. I do every single thing in my power to prepare myself for every race I go to.

"It's been a difficult year, not winning, but always being there without that victory.

"It's creating more and more stress, but we have one more opportunity on Sunday."

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It's a course that suits Matthews' strengths - a few punchy climbs to take the sting out of the pure sprinters' legs, like Aussie teammate Ewan, to potentially set up a reduced bunch sprint.

Part of it is made up of the Brabantse Pijl course - a race where Matthews finished second in 2015 and fourth two years ago.

"It's definitely a course that suits my characteristics," he said.

"I've been always around the mark in Brabantse Pijl race, which is basically this. It's a mixture of a few different races into one, which is pretty cool.

"It's going to be a mess for sure, but hopefully we've got the right team here to get the job done."

Matthews and Ewan both go in an as outsiders, with Belgian Wout van Aert the favourite ahead of Matthieu van der Poel and Julian Alaphilippe.

But Matthews felt Sonny Colbrelli was the one to beat after a super strong September that included winning the Benelux Tour and the European Continental Championship.

"Colbrelli's definitely showed himself this last few months that he's definitely going to be a red-hot favourite," he said.

"No one's really beaten him in the last few weeks."

UCI WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS MEN'S ROAD RACE

Sunday: Men's 268.3km road race from Antwerp to Leuven, Belgium. Starts 6.25pm. Live on SBS Viceland from 9.30pm.