Australian Michael Matthews wins Tour de France stage 14 in mountains after wife’s advice
Australia’s Michael Matthews has transformed from sprinter to mountain king, winning stage 14 of the Tour de France after taking some shrewd advice from wife Katarina.
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There are days at the Tour de France when the entertainment comes not in one but two engrossing races. That was how it was on the long road from Saint-Etienne to Mende in the Massif Central.
Michael Matthews, an Australian rider with a winning habit, achieved a gruelling yet beautiful victory in the first and then, 12min 34sec later, the race leader Jonas Vingegaard and his challenger-in-chief Tadej Pogacar came flying up the same finishing straight, side by side. This one ended in a draw.
The 14th leg was the second of three transition stages, the races that take the riders from the Alps to the Pyrenees. For much of the day it was a coolish 26C, but as they neared the finish in Mende the sun raised its game. “It was 40 degrees coming down into Mende, but I like riding in the heat,” Vingegaard said.
That reference to a liking for high temperatures was uttered with Pogacar in mind. The Slovenian rider has admitted he’s not so fond of racing in a furnace. Before considering the nicely simmering rivalry between the two general classification (GC) protagonists in this Tour, let us applaud the merit of what Matthews, 31, known as “Bling”, achieved.
This was his fourth stage win at the Tour and different from all the others, undeniably more meritorious. He attributed the win to a conversation with his wife, Katarina, on Friday evening, which only goes to prove men should never stop talking to their spouses. Michael and Katarina were shooting the breeze about his Tour so far: two second places but no victory, which wasn’t good enough for a rider of his calibre.
Katarina told him he needed to gamble, to go in the breakaway and attack when rivals least expected. Mrs Matthews has always believed in her husband’s talent and he took on board the advice. So, from the start, he was looking to get himself into a breakaway. It’s hard work, often unrewarding, but after about 50 kilometres, 23 riders had escaped the clutches of the peloton.
Matthews was there but not entirely happy. Unlike many of his rivals in the group, he didn’t have a teammate and the word from the team car was that 19 of his fellow escapees could climb. That was important, because at the finish in Mende there was a 3km climb that might, in places, be too steep for him.
So what was he to do? Katarina’s words were ringing in his ears. “Gamble,” she’d said, “don’t be afraid to take a risk.” So with 50km remaining, Matthews counterattacked from the group and only three riders could go with him. In the early part of that climb towards the finish, Matthews got rid of his two remaining breakaway rivals and things looked good.
But from the group left behind earlier, Alberto Bettiol came flying up the hill and, once he got Matthews in his sights, he went even faster. The Italian didn’t slow to say hello, just sped straight past the lone leader. At that moment you wouldn’t have given a fig for Matthews’s chances. As Bettiol went by, Matthews told himself not to panic, to hang on as well as he could.
“Fans were screaming so loud, I couldn’t feel my legs. I knew I couldn’t give up. Mattie [the BikeExchange-Jayco sporting director Matt White] was saying in my ear, ‘Ride as hard as you can and you will win the stage.’ I was thinking of my daughter [Kaia] on the final climb the whole way up to the finish. They make the sacrifices for me. Hopefully, today I showed them the reason why.”
Matthews kept up as best he could and through the less steep final kilometre of the climb, he was able to ride right up to Bettiol and do what had been done to him. He didn’t spend much time loitering, got to his rival and went again. That was it. There was 1.5km down to the finish and, now clear, Matthews had time to savour the victory.
A long way from Mende, the GC teams decided to let the breakaways go. They rode steadily to the finish, knowing that their race would come on that short, sharp 3km climb near the finish. Pogacar had begun the day aggressively, twice attacking in the first 10km, once when Vingegaard was badly positioned. “I expect him to take every opportunity,” the race leader said. “For one of his attacks I was too far back to jump with him. I had to close a gap but it didn’t cost me much energy.”
On the final climb, Pogacar went again. Vingegaard countered immediately and never let his rival get any kind of gap. Behind the two leaders, Geraint Thomas, Romain Bardet and Adam Yates all struggled. And the efforts made in the Alps caught up with Tom Pidcock, who lost 1:10 to the Vingegaard-Pogacar tandem. Thomas’s loss was 17 seconds and he remains third overall at 2:43. Yates is fifth at 4:06.
Vingegaard was asked about the nature of his relationship with Pogacar. “I’ve raced against him many times,” he replied, “but we live in two different places and I don’t have his phone number. So you can tell from that how many times we speak. But we both respect each other as riders.”
After his attempt to inflict stress on the race leader in Mende, it was clear that Pogacar means to continue the fight into the Pyrenees. The third week of this race should be just as compelling as the first two.
Originally published as Australian Michael Matthews wins Tour de France stage 14 in mountains after wife’s advice
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