L’Australian Michael Matthews won the 14e stage of the Tour de France in Mende ahead of the Italian Bettiol and the Frenchman Thibaut Pinot, Saturday July 16. The 31-year-old rider distanced his Italian breakaway companion in the final of the Jalabert climb. Behind, the Dane Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo) remained yellow jersey. Vingegaard followed Tadej Pogacar’s attack on the final climb without giving him any ground, some twelve and a half minutes after the first survivors of the day’s breakaway.
A decisive rise
In the Côte de la Croix Neuve, otherwise known as Montée Laurent Jalabert, a 3 kilometer climb at 10.2%, Matthews emerged victorious from his showdown with Bettiol, who had come back on him. 500 meters from the summit, the energetic Australian ended up gaining the upper hand to sign his fourth stage success in the Tour, for which he was the green jersey in 2017. This year, Michael Matthews (31 years) had finished second in Longwy during the 6e stage then in Lausanne two days later.
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The breakaway of the day took shape after an hour of racing after a fast and fatal start to the Slovenian Primoz Roglic. Pogacar put pressure on Vingegaard on the first climb, who quickly came back in his wake. The peloton then recovered when the breakaway of 23 riders developed, and Roglic was able to return to a late group.
Up front, Matthews broke free at the start of the last 50 kilometres. He was then joined by a trio (Grosschartner, Sanchez and Kron, then left behind on a puncture) to arrive at the foot of the final climb with an advantage limited to 25 seconds. In the pack of favorites, Pogacar only kept Vingegaard with him. Behind the first two in the classification, the first pursuer, the Frenchman David Gaudu, lost 17 seconds.