Michael Matthews conquers sweltering conditions to clinch memorable stage win

Michael Matthews powered his way up the steep climb to the airfield in Mende to win his first Tour de France stage in five years and surely the finest of his four to date.

The 31-year-old made his name winning bunch sprints, but this time he attacked from a breakaway and then showed his maturity on the three-kilometre climb, named after 1995 winner Laurent Jalabert, at the end of this 192km stage from Saint Etienne.

Matthews kept his cool in temperatures touching 40 degrees centigrade as Alberto Bettiol passed him and briefly rode clear but then faded before the summit, allowing the Australian to come back around and enjoy his celebrations on the runway to the line.

Defending champion Tadej Pogacar tried to use the same climb, with gradients consistently in double digits, to distance Jonas Vingegaard as the main contenders came home more than 12 minutes later, but the yellow jersey immediately latched on to his wheel and stuck there to the line.

Geraint Thomas and Adam Yates could not follow, losing 17 and 22 seconds respectively, though they remain third and fifth overall.

The day, however, belonged to Matthews, a rider who won two stages and the points classification in the 2017 Tour but who has endured much frustration since – not least with second places behind Pogacar and Wout Van Aert on stages six and eight last week.

Matthews got himself in a 23-strong breakaway handed a comfortable advantage by the peloton, but was surrounded by better climbers.

He needed to take the initiative and did with an attack 52km from home which only Felix Grossschartner, Andreas Kron and Luis Leon Sanchez could follow.

After Kron suffered a puncture to continue Lotto-Soudal’s miserable run of luck, Matthews rode the other two off his