Belgian cyclist Remco Evenepoel claims UCI World Championships in Wollongong

The Canberra cycling star came from the clouds with a stunning final sprint to finish third in the men's road race at the UCI World Championships on Sunday - even though he admitted he wasn't exactly sure what he was sprinting for.

Matthews just wanted to finish as close as he could to Belgian winner Remco Evenepoel, who blew away the rest of the field to claim the rainbow jersey.

He was edged out in the sprint for the line by France's Christophe Laporte for second.

It's Matthews' third podium in the road race at the world championships - going with his silver in 2015 and his bronze in 2017.

After a tough year last year, the Canberran said his confidence was back having also won a stage at this year's Tour de France.

He praised the hard work of his Australian teammates, who allowed him to sit quietly in the peloton and wait for his chance in the final two laps.

The 31-year-old could also thank the group of four riders who started playing cat-and-mouse in the final kilometre, allowing the flying peloton to swamp them.

"This one's the best, definitely on home soil, it's definitely the most special," Matthews said.

"I've been second, but the second-place result was also quite a long way away like this one was.

"The level of cycling at the moment is so high, it's incredible to be up here with this bronze medal.

"Having a medal here in Australia, we wanted that one actually [Evenepoel's medal], but coming away with third place on home soil - it feels like a win."

The race started in controversial circumstances when one of the favourites for the world title, Mathieu van der Poel was arrested and charged with two counts of assaults from an overnight incident at his hotel.

While he started the race after a sleepless night, he withdrew with more than 230km of the 270km race to go.

Up stepped Evenepoel. The Belgian won the Veulta a Espana just two weeks ago, but he still managed to go under the radar at the worlds.

So much so, he was allowed to launch a withering attack with two laps of the Wollongong city loop and 34 kilometres to go, with Kazakhstan's Alexey Lutsenko jumping onto his coattails.

Evenepoel then made his world-title-winning move on the penultimate climb, when he was simply too strong for Lutsenko.

From there the man who won a bronze medal in the individual time trial on Sunday was never going to be caught.

It capped a remarkable month for the Belgian, who won his first Grand Tour in Spain a fortnight ago.

Now he's champion of the world - just four years after he won the junior world title.

It was meant to be his countryman Wout van Aert leading the way for the Belgians, but with him a few minutes behind in the peloton Evenepoel seized his opportunity.

"It's another level," Evenepoel said.

"It's been a long season and it's amazing to finish like this. I'm super happy I had the legs.

"I felt quite quickly that I was stronger than the rest and there was no time to waste.

"We really raced like a team today. I think we just deserve it, we really deserve it.

"I think it's something that I've been dreaming of and I won everything I could this year."

AT A GLANCE

Men's road race: 1. Remco Evenepoel, 2. Christophe Laporte, 3. Michael Matthews.

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