As Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) raised his arms in celebration, Michael Matthews (BikeExchange-Jayco) dropped head in disappointment, gutted to finish second again in an uphill finish at the Tour de France.
The BikeExchange-Jayco rider seemed perfectly poised for victory, jumping first in the sprint after surviving the high-speed 5km climb from the lakeside in Lausanne to the summit of Côte du Stade Olympique. He took the inside line on the curving finish and could see the line but then ran out of power and his legs locked up, with Van Aert cruelly surging past him to win again.
It was Van Aert’s seventh win of 2022 and his second at the 2022 Tour de France after taking three consecutive second places in the opening stages. Matthews has taken a series of impressive placings but has been unable to hit the line first.
“I knew last time in a sprint like this two days ago, that I waited too late. This time I went too early. But Wout was amazing out there today,” Matthews admitted before trying to find comfort in his second place.
“The team did a great race, delivering me to where I needed to be. But I’m second again but hopefully I’m knocking the door of that win.
“My wife is here at the finish and I was trying to get the win for her but I just came up short. I’ve been second to Tadej [Pogačar] and second to Wout [van Aert]. It’s my time next.”
Matthews’ BikeExchange-Jayco team joined forces with Jumbo-Visma to chase down the three-rider break of the day, catching lone-survivor Fred Wright (Bahrain Victorious) on the climb to the finish as Matthews and a select front group fought the lactic acid and prepared to sprint.
"I guess everyone knew the run-in was going to be hectic. We needed to try and stay safe. For me, I had to be in a good position at the bottom of the climb otherwise it was game over. The guys sacrificed a lot just to get me into position and then I had Jack [Bauer] at the bottom, and Schultzy [Nick Schultz] came most of the way up the climb with me. I always had a guy with me if anything happened, then it was up to me in the sprint. Wout was just faster.
“I tried to think about how my legs felt,” Matthews added about the intense finale. “The team did a great job all day, controlling the race. We used a lot of guys to make sure it came back and it was up to me to try to finish it off.
“I think I rode a good race, there wasn’t much I could have done, it’s about who has legs left. I jumped with around 200 metres to go and it looked like a lot of guys like Tadej and Wout were boxed in on the left. I hoped to get a jump on them but I just wasn’t fast enough.
“We knew Wout was strong, the way he rode at the Dauphine. He was the man to beat on these punchy finishes and Tadej too. Wout is climbing with the best climbers too, so to be second to him is not so bad.”
As for his look ahead at other chances to claim his first Tour stage victory since 2017, when he won two stages and points classification riding for Team SunWeb, Matthews said there was no picture-perfect scenario.
"There are some breakaway [stages] that look interesting. For me, in this Tour de France, there was never really a stage where I was super sure I would win - like a Rodez stage where I know I'm punchy enough to really take the win on a stage like that. They're all 5k uphill, or the other day, 2.6km with a climb before that. There's nothing that suits me perfectly, but I gave it everything anyway.
"You don't get to choose your Tour de France stages so you take what you can get. Two days ago with Tadej, he was the faster guy, today it was quite even with me Wout and Tadej. I can take confidence from that."
