Tour de France: Michael Matthews praises teammates after Stage 10 win: ‘I have no word to describe what they did for me’

Australian rider Michael Matthews, left, of the Orica BikeExchange team celebrates after winning the 10th stage of the 103rd edition of the Tour de France. Yoan Valat / EPA

REVEL // Michael Matthews profited from the work of his teammates to win the 10th stage of the Tour de France in a sprint finish after a long breakaway on Tuesday.

The Australian Orica-BikeExchange rider edged world champion Peter Sagan and Edvald Boasson Hagen to claim his first stage win at cycling’s biggest race.

The stage took the riders from Escaldes-Engordany in Andorra on a 197-kilometre trek to Revel in the south of France.

Matthews was part of a group of early breakaway riders during the 24km climb to the Port d’Envalira, the highest climb of the Tour at 2,408 metres.

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Finishing 9 minutes, 39 seconds in the main peloton behind the breakaway, defending champion Chris Froome kept the yellow jersey. Froome has a 16-second lead over fellow Briton Adam Yates, with Irish rider Dan Martin in third place, 19 seconds behind.

A group of six riders including Matthews’s teammates, Daryl Impey and Luke Durbridge, fought for the stage victory in a frenzied finale. Sagan tried to make the most of a small climb 9km before the line but failed to surprise his rivals with his acceleration.

Impey countered the move, Durbridge then tried another attack to wear out Sagan, and the small group stayed compact until the final kilometre.

Impey then perfectly set up Matthews in the final section.

“It’s unbelievable. I was close to giving in at this race after I had two bad crashes two and one years ago,” Matthews said.

“I thought, maybe this race is not for me, but today my dream comes true. It was never the plan to go for a breakaway today. We wanted a bunch sprint finish but we’re such a strong group of guys. Durbridge and Impey gave me everything to win. I have no word to describe what they did for me.”

The stage started with a flurry of attacks in the climb to the Port d’Envalira. Sagan was in the thick of the action as the air started to thin out. Former world champion Rui Costa then surged from the leading group and crested the summit with a one-minute gap.

He was joined by Sagan, Vincenzo Nibali, and Matthews in the highly technical descent to the spa town of Ax-les-Thermes, made even more dangerous by the thick fog at the top. Several riders bridged the breakaway group, which passed by the characteristic and colorful cafes of Ax-les-Thermes at full speed with the main peloton in its wake.

Sagan and French sprinter Samuel Dumoulin vainly tried to go clear and were reined in by the lead group in the head wind. With no general classification contenders among the leaders, Team Sky did not narrow the gap, and the 15 riders at the front built a lead of seven minutes with 90 kilometers left.

Sagan then secured the green jersey by winning the intermediate sprint at Aigues-Vives, earning 20 more points in the best sprinters’ classification.

Back at the peloton, IAM Cycling and Direct Energie accelerated the tempo in rainy conditions and the gap dropped under five minutes with 45km to go. But under pressure of being caught, the breakaway riders started to collaborate more until Sagan accelerated with 25km left, going clear in the small group that eventually fought for the stage win.

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