Canberra's Michael Matthews' new bike glitters with gold, cash and diamonds – all signifying the emerging superstar's nickname "Bling" – but he had to settle for second on stage 17 of the Vuelta a Espana on Thursday.
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But the 23-year-old is confident of changing that over the closing stages of the final grand tour of 2014 as he continues to show the super form that has him gunning for a world championship title in Spain at the end of the month.
Matthews fell agonisingly short of adding to his stage-three win, which put him in the overall leader's jersey for three days, with John Degenkolb narrowly beating him in the bunch sprint to continue the German's outstanding Vuelta.
It leaves Matthews three stages to equal his haul at last year's Vuelta when he announced himself to the world as a future force to be reckoned with.
He was hoping his brand new Scott bike, complete with gold trim, dollar signs and diamonds, would help him double his stage wins on Thursday.
"In the sprint I was looking down at the gold bike but it didn't quite get me over Degenkolb in the finish," Matthews said.
He sat on the wheel of green jersey leader Degenkolb as the finishing line approached, a move he backed as the right one.
It was a finish that suited the young Canberran, with an uphill climb leading into the dash for home.
"I played my cards on following Degenkolb. In the end it was the right move to follow him because he obviously won the race," Matthews said.
"With about six to seven kilometres to go there was a fairly big kick uphill ... in the final kilometre there was no real lead-out trains anymore, just guys attacking from left to right.
"I was as close as I could have been so it's one of those situations coming off for second that is not so bad.
"There are still another two stages that suit me in this Vuelta so we will keep fighting for that second stage win."
Orica-GreenEDGE sport director Neil Stephens thought Matthews had done all he could to get the chocolates.
"By [the final turn] Michael was riding really well and [was)] super confident," Stephens said.
"He got on Degenkolb's wheel and in the rush to the line was just beaten by a better man.
"We will look back on it later on, but I'm not too sure there was a way to alter that result."
