Australian road bicycle racer
Mathew Hayman (born 20 April 1978) is an Australian former professional road bicycle racer, who rode professionally between 2000 and 2019 for the Rabobank, Team Sky and Mitchelton–Scott teams. During his career, Hayman was an experienced and respected domestique, as he typically took on a supporting role within his team. Hayman was also a specialist in the cobbled classics, and was the winner of Paris–Roubaix in 2016. Following his retirement from racing after the 2019 Tour Down Under,[2] Hayman remained with the Mitchelton–Scott team as a part-time directeur sportif alongside a "special projects" position.[3][4]
Personal life
Hayman was born in western Sydney, but the family was living near Goulburn in country New South Wales when he became interested in cycling, largely due to his older brother.[5] He started racing in Canberra, and, following his brother, moved to Europe to further a potential cycling career in 1997. He raced as an amateur with Rabobank's under-23 team, based in The Netherlands.[6] In 2006 he married Kym Shirley, an Australian professional cyclist. The couple has a son, born in 2011, and twins born in 2017.
Career
Hayman turned professional in 2000 with Rabobank, after three years racing as an amateur in Europe. He completed his first Paris–Roubaix the same year. He stayed with Rabobank for ten years, achieving a number of good results during that time. Hayman has refused to discuss Dr Geert Leinders when asked about his time at Rabobank.[7] Riding for Australia in the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne as a domestique in support of Allan Davis, it was Hayman who came away with the gold medal in the road race.
At the end of 2009 Hayman left Rabobank for the challenge of helping to form a new professional cycling team, then known as Team Sky. Hayman left Team Sky at the end of the 2013 season,[8] and joined Orica–GreenEDGE for the 2014 season.[1]
On 10 April 2016, he won Paris–Roubaix, the eighth professional victory of his career. He was part of a breakaway of 16 riders that escaped from the peloton in the early stages of the race, which was later joined by a group which was formed after the peloton broke up following a crash 115 km from the finish. In the closing stages Hayman managed to close the gap on a select group of riders attacking from the lead group, and in the final sprint at Roubaix Velodrome, he beat Tom Boonen, Ian Stannard, Sep Vanmarcke and Edvald Boasson Hagen. His first reaction was one of disbelief: "I can’t believe it [...] This is my favorite race, it's a race I dream of every year. This year I didn’t even dare to dream."[9]
On 18 September 2018 Hayman announced that he intended to retire after the 2019 Tour Down Under.[2][10]
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