Michael Matthews fights back for epic Tour de France stage win

Australian Michael Matthews completed a vintage ride to win the 14th stage of the Tour de France on Saturday, a hilly trek from Saint Etienne to Mende, as Jonas Vingegaard held off defending champion Tadej Pogacar to retain the yellow jersey.

Matthews went solo from the day's breakaway with 51km to go and after being caught by a trio of chasers he attacked again on the final ascent, a brutal 3km effort up a sharp rise.

Alberto Bettiol managed to rein him in once more, only for Matthews to come back and go solo again to beat the Italian by 15 seconds.

"I've always come up second best, third best, top three, top 10 in the last couple of years. I've been consistent which is good but you need to win," said Matthews, who claimed his fourth Tour stage win and his first since 2017.

"My wife told me if you want to win you have to try something new.

"When Bettiol passed me I thought about my wife and my father who sacrifice so much for me, we don't get to see each other much. I hope they're proud of me because that's why we make those sacrifices."