Last year it was a pre-race crash that ruled Michael Matthews out of the Tour de France. This year a mass pile up on stage 3 dented the first-week ambitions of the Orica-GreenEdge rider who started his debut Tour with the record of winning a stage in all four-stage races he’d started in 2015.
On the punchy finish to Rodez, won by Greg Van Avermaet, Matthews showed that while his body is still recovering, mentally he is ready to be back at the pointy end of stages.
Matthews’ next target is stage 16 of the race with the sprint on the Champs Élysée to be one final roll of the dice after that.
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