Matthews worked difficult and confirmed very good variety to keep on being at the front of the bunch as they wound their way up the finishing ascent of the Cote du Stade Olympique, starting his sprint with 150 metres left.
But it was not to be when all over again, with van Aert tearing by means of to acquire the day in advance of Matthews in second and Tadej Pogacar (UAE Group Emirates) in third, it was a different discouraging runner-up complete for the Australian right after Pogacar defeat him in a equivalent end on Stage 6 just days ahead of.
“I learnt from two days in the past that I actually want to begin my sprint very first,” Matthews claimed following the stage.
“I gave it a shot from the front and started off my sprint first but just bought overwhelmed by Wout [Van Aert] on the line. I honestly never believe I made a oversight these days, I did every little thing I could, there was just a more robust rider in the bike race currently, so I would not acquire anything at all again.
“I consider it was all-around 200m to go, it looked like a good deal of fellas, Tadej [Pogacar] and Wout had been boxed on the remaining a little bit, so I was hoping I could get a small little bit of a bounce, but I just was not rapid more than enough.
“Obviously we’re in this article to gain, I’m listed here to get. I don’t appear listed here to appear second. That’s how it’s been so far, I acquired crushed by an awesome rider two times in the past in Tadej and one more super-freak now with Wout. I consider subsequent time it is my transform.”
While it wasn’t a victory, Matthews’ second place was a superior team outcome for BikeExchange-Jayco, whose program on the day was to get their functional sprinter in a posture to go for the get that proceeds to elude him at this year’s Tour de France.
Once the a few-person breakaway of Mattia Cattaneo (Quick-Phase Alpha Vinyl), Fred Wright (Bahrain-Victorious) and Fredrik Frison (Lotto Soudal) experienced bought away, Chris Juul-Jensen (BikeExchange-Jayco) was quick to get to the entrance of the peloton and commence pulling to limit the hole stretching out.
Then it was Luke Durbridge’s transform to pull on the front around the summit of the Col de Petra Felix, the gap to the breakaway steadily starting to fall specified the commanding pace of the Australian group.
When the riders had been on the remaining climb, Matthews benefited from the get the job done of Jack Bauer, Luka Mezgec and Nick Schultz to place him flawlessly to problem for the earn.
Staff director Matt White was a very pleased person when he appeared back on the attempts of his riders, as they all executed the approach to reel in the breakaway and provide Matthews into a winning place perfectly.
“Our guys rode a really, incredibly great race,” White explained to SBS just after the phase.
“We wished to set it up for Michael, we know he is in great issue and those people kind of finishes are great for him.
“We needed to make absolutely sure there was no breakaway, or a incredibly modest breakaway and it was a true massive workforce effort to hold all the things underneath regulate.
“Every person experienced their position and they executed it quite, quite effectively and gave Michael the best possibility to get the stage, and Michael took that prospect and he need to be proud.”
The Tour de France carries on with Phase 9, a hard working day in the mountains from Aigle to Châtel les portes du Soleil. Look at the racing action on the SBS SKODA Tour Tracker from 8.20pm AEST, with the SBS broadcast and SBS On Demand livestream starting at 8.30pm.
