Missus is big hit for Matthews
AUSTRALIAN Michael Matthews credited his wife after completing a vintage ride to win the 14th stage of the Tour de France as Jonas Vingegaard retained the yellow jersey.
Matthews went solo from the day’s breakaway with 51 kilometres to go but after being caught by a trio of chasers he attacked again on the final ascent, a brutal 3km effort.
Alberto Bettiol managed to rein him in once more, only for Matthews to come back and go solo again to beat the Italian by 15 seconds.
Matthews, who claimed his fourth Tour stage win, and his first since 2017, said: “I’ve always come up second-best, third-best, top-three, top-10 in the last couple of years.
“I’ve been consistent which is good – but you need to win.
“My wife told me if you want to win you have to try something new.
“When Bettiol passed me I thought about my wife and my father who
sacrifice so much for me, we don’t get to see each other much.
“I hope that they’re proud of me because that’s why we make those sacrifices.”
Thibaut Pinot came home third as the race’s French riders continue to fight for their first stage win this year.
Only twice in the history of the Tour de France have French riders failed to win a stage – in 1926 and 1999.
Vingegaard held off defending champion Tadej Pogacar and leads by two minutes 22 seconds overall, with Geraint Thomas in third place, a further 21sec behind.
The 2018 champion was unable to follow Pogacar and Vingegaard on the Cote de la Croix Neuve but Thomas limited the damage, losing 17sec on the top two but building his lead over fourth-placed Romain Bardet to 9sec.