Finally Michael Matthews is the top gun. And for the first time it means the Canberra cyclist can set his sights on gunning down the "Manx Missile" and the world's fastest cleats.
With his maiden stage win in the memory bank, Matthews has put his previous Tour de France heartbreaks behind him and has his sights set on saluting as often as possible in this year's race.
![Canberra cyclist Michael Matthews, of Team Sunweb, competes during stage one of the Tour de France 2017, a 14km ...](http://web.archive.org./web/20170710132614im_/https://www.fairfaxstatic.com.au/content/dam/images/g/x/3/0/x/f/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gx29p5.png/1499358812300.jpg)
The 26-year-old switched from Orica-Scott to Team Sunweb this season and has had a team custom built for him.
It's the first time he's had a dedicated lead-out train - a group of riders whose job it is to create a slipstream and drag him into the best position to unleash his withering finish at the end of a stage.
That wasn't the case at Orica-Scott, where he often found himself competing with then-teammate Simon Gerrans at the business end of a race.
It also meant he'd go into bunch sprints on his own and would have to take on the world's fastest men, like the aforementioned Manx Missile Mark Cavendish, with only his wits to help him.
That's changed and Matthews got off to a great start by being the best-placed Australian in the opening time trial with a 16th-place finish.
He's already formed a partnership with Nikias Arndt, teaming up to win a stage at this year's Tour de Suisse a couple of weeks ago.
![Canberra's Michael Matthews has a team he can take on the fastest men on wheels with.](http://web.archive.org./web/20170710132614im_/https://www.fairfaxstatic.com.au/content/dam/images/g/w/p/s/k/p/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gx29p5.png/1498974366968.jpg)
While he's previously known as an allrounder, it has Matthews confident he can take on the fleetest pedals in the peloton in the 2017 edition of the world's greatest race.
"With the team that we have here it makes it easier to be amongst these guys in the bunch sprints, because before with not having much lead-up in the Tour it's really difficult to be amongst the guys that are getting proper lead-outs," he said.
"With strong guys like this it's going to make it possible to challenge these guys. We'll have to wait and see."
Matthews' initial goal for the Tour is to win a stage.
While many were hoping he'd be able to challenge world champion Peter Sagan for the sprinter's green jersey - the Slovakian has won the last five comfortably - Matthews' sole focus is on winning stages in the opening week of the three-week race.
Then he'll reassess and see if he can switch the crosshairs to Sagan's usually green back.
"It's obviously something the media's building up, the green jersey, [but] for me and the team it's just to focus on stages," Matthews said.
"Then you have to see what happens afterwards, if there's a chance [to win the green jersey], but it's definitely not the main focus.
"We'll have to wait and see. Obviously the shape is there, but the main focus is the stages."
This will be Matthews' third Tour and last year's race has bolstered his confidence after a checkered history with the grand tour.
He won stage 10 of last year's Tour to get the monkey off his back, after two years of injury hell.
The man known as Bling crashed just days before he was meant to make his Tour debut in 2014, meaning he had to wait til the following year to ride in the historic race.
But that wasn't much better, with a crash on stage three ensuring he had a painful ride to Paris.
He finally broke the curse last year, which has him buoyed for a big race.
"Once you've won a stage of the Tour it makes it a little bit easier to come back the next year," Matthews said.
"If you've only got really bad memories from the Tour then it makes it more difficult.
"The first two year's I attempted the race it never really went to plan, but with the stage win last year it makes it a lot easier to come back and be excited and ready to race properly.
"That stage win last year definitely helps my confidence in this race for sure."