Matthews determined to fight on at Tour de France despite rib injury
Contusions left Australian struggling to breathe overnight
Michael Matthews was one of five Orica-GreenEdge riders to hit the deck during a nasty crash on stage 3 of the Tour de France on Monday. After a quick assessment by the Tour’s medical team on the scene, it was thought that the Australian had broken his ribs but further inspection later revealed a much less worrying prognosis.
It is now believed that Matthews is suffering from some minor contusions to his ribs and he will survive to fight another day. “I’m a bit sore. The skin off isn’t that bad, a lot of riders hit me at about 70 kilometres per hour into my ribs and my back. So that’s the real sore point at the moment,” explained Matthews ahead of the start of stage 4 from Seraing to Cambrai.
Get The Leadout Newsletter
The latest race content, interviews, features, reviews and expert buying guides, direct to your inbox!
Thank you for reading 5 articles in the past 30 days*
Join now for unlimited access
Enjoy your first month for just £1 / $1 / €1
*Read any 5 articles for free in each 30-day period, this automatically resets
After your trial you will be billed £4.99 $7.99 €5.99 per month, cancel anytime. Or sign up for one year for just £49 $79 €59
Join now for unlimited access
Try your first month for just £1 / $1 / €1
Born in Ireland to a cycling family and later moved to the Isle of Man, so there was no surprise when I got into the sport. Studied sports journalism at university before going on to do a Masters in sports broadcast. After university I spent three months interning at Eurosport, where I covered the Tour de France. In 2012 I started at Procycling Magazine, before becoming the deputy editor of Procycling Week. I then joined Cyclingnews, in December 2013.