Stage 14 report: Having been overtaken on the final climb, Michael Matthews drew on his apparently bottomless reserves to pull clear of Alberto Bettiol and win his first stage of the Tour de France since 2017.
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Caleb Ewan finishes the stage ...
With the broom wagon on his back wheel, the Australian limps over the line over 39 minutes after his compatriot Michael Matthews. He punches the air in weary triumph, which suggests he’s made it inside the time limit. Well done him!
Top 10 on GC after stage 14
- Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) 55hr 31min 01sec
- Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) +2min 22sec
- Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers) +2min 43sec
- Romain Bardet (Team DSM) +3min 01sec
- Adam Yates (Ineos Grenadiers) +4min 06sec
- Nairo Quintana (Arkea-Samsic) +4min 15sec
- Louis Meintjes ((Intermarche-Wanty) +4min 24sec
- David Gaudu (Groupama FDJ) +4min 24sec
- Tom Pidcock (Ineos Grenadiers) +8min 49sec
- Enrique Mas (Movistar) +9min 58sec
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Michael Matthews speaks ...
“I think it’s pretty much the story of my career,” says the stage winner. “I’ve had so many rollercoasters up and down but my wife and my daughter kept believing me. How many times have I been smashed down but I always get back up. This was for my daughter today; she’s four years old and I really just wanted to show her why I’m away all the time and what I do it for. And today was that day.”
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Caleb Ewan watch: We don’t know how far behind the Australian is but we he is the last of 111 riders still out on the road today.
Geraint Thomas: The Welsh Ineos Grenadiers rider remains in third place overall at 2min 43sec.
Louis Meintjes: Having started the day in 14th place on General Classification and at one point pedalled his way to virtual second, the South African finishes an excellent day’s work in seventh place overall.
Pogacar and Vingegaard roll over the finsh line. More than 12 minutes after Michael Matthews won the stage, the Slovenian is first over with the race leader on his wheel.
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Pogacar attacks again: The Slovenian puts in another big dig with two kilometres to to go. He’s unable to give Vingegaard the slip. The duo are taking huge chunks of time out of David Gaudu, Thomas and Bardet.
Oof! Pogacar and Vingegaard power up the final climb leaving the rest of the GC contenders in all sorts of bother. Geraint Thomas has lost 30 seconds, while Romain Bardet has lost 46.
The yellow jersey group: Jonas Vingegaard has been left isolated in a group of about 15 riders on the final climb. Tadaj Pogacar launches an attack but the race leader sticks to his back wheel.
Louis Meintjes. Having started the day in 14th place on GC, the South African finished the stage 1min 13sec behind Michael Matthews. He won’t be getting the yellow jersey following his brilliant performance but could get in the top five.
Michael Matthews wins stage 14!
The Australian wins his first stage of the Tour for five years following a courageous masterclass in bike-riding. It was a heroic effort from him today. Alberto Bettiol takes second place and Thibaut Pinot is third.
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1km to go: Astonishing stuff from Matthews, who looked beaten but digs deep into his reserves of strength to overtake Bettiol and be first over the final climb. He’ll be favourite to win the runway sprint to the finish.
2km to go: Bettiol leads Matthews by about seven bike-lengths but can’t shake them off. Thibaut Pinot is chasing them down but looks to have let it too late.
2.3km to go: Bettiol latches on to Matthews’ wheel and then passes the Australian in a bid to win his first Tour de France stage. Matthews hangs on but is deep in the red zone.
3km to go: Michael Matthews pulls clear of Sanchez and Grosschartner, whose collective goose looks cooked. This is a heroic effort from the Australian, who has already finished second in two stages on this Tour. He’s about to be caught by Alberto Bettiol with the gradient on the final climb at its steepest.
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4km to go: There are 2.5km to the top of the final climb and the lead of the trio in front is down to 16 seconds. Michael Woods is putting in a shift in the chasing group on behalf of his Israel–Premier Tech teammate Jakob Fuglsang.
5km to go: Matthews, Sanchez and Grosschartner pass under the “five kilomtres to go” banner and into the final kilometre before the vicious final climb with it’s maximum gradient of 15%. They have a lead of 24 seconds over a chasing group that includes Simmons, Pinot, Martinez, Woods and Uran.
6km to go: The leaders approach the foot of the Côte de la Croix Neuve Montée Jalabert, recently re-named in honour of Laurent Jalabert. Hmmm ...
10km to go: At the front of the race, Michael Matthews (BikeExchange-Jayco), Luis Leon Sanchez (Bahrain-Victorious) and Felix Grosschartner (Bora-Hansgrohe) have a lead of 39 seconds over a chasing group being led by Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ).
11 min: Wout van Aert is leading the yellow jersey group featuring all the big names with his team-mate, the race leader Jonas Vingegaard on his back wheel. He’ll lead them to the foot of the final climb before dropping off, one suspects.
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13km to go: Tom Pidcock is droipped from the yellow jersey group and looks set to drop out of the top 10 on GC. At the front of the race, Michael Matthews (BikeExchange-Jayco), Luis Leon Sanchez (Bahrain-Victorious) and Felix Grosschartner (Bora-Hansgrohe) have a lead of 39 seconds over the chasing posse as they descend from Cote de la Fage. With a very steep climb to come before the finish, will it be enough?
Caleb Ewan watch: The Australian and his three comrades from Lotto Soudal are over 26 minutes behind the stage leaders.
20km to go: Back in an increasingly small peloton, Team Jumbo-Visma are putting the hammer down, presumably in order to stop Louis Meintjes from taking the yellow jersey.
25km to go: If Lotto Soudal didn’t have bad luck they’d have no luck at all. In the wake of Caleb Ewan’s crash yesterday, Andreas Kron has been dropped from the lead quartet after his front tyre punctured. He did well to stay iupright as it happened on a downhill stretch as he approached a turn. Elsewhere, Simon Geschke has mathematically guaranteed himself the King of the Mountains jersey for another day at least.
31km to go: Michael Matthews (BikeExchange-Jayco), Luis Leon Sanchez (Bahrain-Victorious), Andreas Kron (Lotto Soudal), Felix Grosschartner (Bora-Hansgrohe) have a lead of 29 seconds. In the chasing pack, Louis Meintjes (Intermarché–Wanty–Gobert Matériaux) has ridden himself into second place on the virtual GC leaderboard. The gap to the peloton is a staggering 14min 30sec!
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32km to go: Neilson Powless, Bauke Mollema and Michael Woods are dropped from the original breakaway.
33km to go: The Italian rider Alberto Bettiol is trying to bridge the gap to the four leaders and is shedding assorting travel companions. He’s in an eight-man group trying to hunt down the four leaders. Stefan Kung is dropped, which is bad news for his Groupama–FDJ team-mate Thibaut Pinot.
36km to go: Matthews, Grosschartner, Kron and Sanchez have a 41-second lead over the other 19 riders from the breakaway.
38km to go: The gap from the leaders to the peloton is now out to 13min 23sec, which means South African rider Louis Meintjes is being catapulted up the GC rankings. Having started this morning in 15th place overall with a 15min 46sec deficit, he could end up in the yellow jersey!!!
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39km to go: Matthews remains on his own in front with a slender lead over a chasing trio of Andreas Kron, Felix Grosschartner and Luis Leon Sanchez. The remaining 19 members of the breakaway are now bickering amongst themselves over who should lead the chase. They’ve made a mess of this and with three men in the breakaway who missed the split, one suspects the directeur sportif of EF Education-Easypost is going to be spitting feathers.
46km to go: Michael Matthews is still out front on his own but only has a lead of 10 seconds over a chasing trio. The rest of the breakaway are a further 17seconds behind.
47km to go: A seven-rider chase group including Dani Martinez and Quinn Simmons set off in pursuit of Matthews, while behind them Stefan Kung takes his place at the front of the rest of the breakaway to time trial them back to the escapees.
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52km to go: Michael Matthews has attacked off the front of the breakaway. The Australian BikeExchange–Jayco rider they call “Bling” has opened a gap of 27 seconds in an optimistic bid to win the stage. A good climber but not a great one, it’s his only hope with two big climbs to come.
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57km to go: Simon Geschke sprints clear of Quinn Simmons to take the two KOM points available. The American was actually using the race to the summit of Cote de Grandieu to launch an attack, safe in the knowledge that nobody else would be contesting the sprint to the line. It’s a cunning plan in theory but doesn’t work in practice as Simmons is unable to shake off his pursuers.
Caleb Ewan watch: The Australian and his three Lotto Soudal amigos are 21 minutes behind the stage leaders. Hats off to Ewan, who I didn’t think had a hope in hell of finishing this stage. There’s a long way to go yet but he’s playing an absolute blinder in extremely trying circumstances.
59km to go: Among the busiest men on the race today, the lads on the Vittel motorbikes are doing commendably sterling work handing out bottles of water to thirsty riders from their refrigerated panniers.
62km to go: In the polka-dot jersey, Simon Geschke is reasonably near the front of the lead bunch as they approach the Col de Grandieu. Will anyone attempt to diddle him out of the maximum two points this time, as Quinn Simmons did earlier?
While Simmons is not in contention to win King of the Mountains, his Trek-Segafredo teammate Giulio Ciccone is. Ciccone is in the peloton today, so needs all the help he can get. Whgile it’s his job, Simmons is a very selfless rider, having put in an epic shift on the front of yesterday’s breakaway to help tee up Mads Pedersen for the win. WIth the Pyrenees ahoy, today he is tasked with trying to snaffle as many KOM points as possible so Geschke can’t get them.
71km to go: The gap is at 10min 34sec as the lead group pedal upwards towards the foot of the Cat 3 Côte de Grandrieu, which is 6.3km long, 1,131m high and 57km from the finish. After that, it’s steadily onwards and mostly upwards to the Cote de la Fage, a much steeper proposition at 4.2km, 1,442m and 30km from the finish. Both peaks are part of the same climb.
81km to go: “Thanks for doing the hard yards keeping an eye on the cycling today,” writes Rohan. “On the random fines for drafting, I can’t help feeling that the more I know about the family that own the Tour, the more it feels like fines are pretty much randomly distributed to make them money. See also the fines for going for a pee anywhere on route. Any views?”
I have no strong views but I think fining a visibly injured rider who’s just been in a bad crash for drafting as he tries to get back to the peloton is a bit harsh. While illegal, it’s unlikely that anyone would object if the commisaires turned a blind eye.
As for roadside ablutions - I’m not sure what the rules are regarding where and when riders are allowed to take a leak, but I suppose as long as they don’t go in the middle of a town or city and make efforts to avoid splashing any spectators’ roadside picnics, they should be allowed go discretely wherever they like.
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86km to go: The gap is out to 10min 28sec and there’s not much going on at the moment, the riders in both groups keeping their powder dry after a chaotic start to the stage, with a view to further battles nearer the end of the stage. The Caleb Ewan quartet of Lotto Soudal riders are currently 18 minutes off the pace.
As things stand we’re looking at a cut-off of about 30 minutes although the commisaires might take pity on the injured Ewan if he finishes outside it, due in no small part to him being a big name sprinter who they’ll want to see in the shake-up in Paris.
94km to go: There is a long, very steep climb just before the short, flat finish to today’s stage and on ITV, the commentary team of Ned Boulting, Pete Kennaugh and David Millar are suggesting that those in the breakaway will be hopeful of getting rid of Thibaut Pinot before they hit that final slope. As things stand, he’d be the favourite to win the stage but we can expect lots of attacks long before then.
95km to go: The gap between the 23-man breakaway and the peloton is now over 10 minutes.
102km to go: The breakaway group is on a long stretch of uphill road with Michael Matthews doing a turn on the front. Back in the peloton, the Jumbo Visma riders of race leader Jonas Vingegaard are controlling the pace at the front of the bunch. In the green jersey, Wout van Aert is on fourth wheel, with Vingegaard two places back.
104km to go: The gap from the leaders to the peloton is 9min 10sec and in the polka dot jersey, Simon Gecshke has dropped back to his team car to replenish his supplies of water. It would be intriguing to know how many bidons individual riders quaff their way through on a scorching hot day like today, not including the ones they pour over themselves in an effort to cool down.
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110km to go: South African Intermarché–Wanty–Gobert Matériaux rider Louis Meintjes is the highest ranked GC rider in today’s breakaway. He started this morning in 14th place at 15min 46sec.
113km to go: Our 23 leaders are now 8min 37sec ahead of the chasing peloton, with Caleb Ewan and his three chaperones a further eight minutes back.
122km to go: The gap from the leaders to the peloton is out to 7min 26sec. Caleb Ewan is over 16 minutes off the pace but at least has his Lotto Soudal teammates Frederik Frison, Reinhardt Janse Van Rensburg and Tim Wellens for company.
123km to go: During a long overdue and welcome lull in today’s stage, we bring you news that Team Alpecin-Deceuninck received two fines yesterday. The first was for aiding Lotto-Soudal rider Caleb Ewan who drafted behind one of their cars as he tried to rejoin the peloton following his crash and the second was for “failing to respect the instructions of the organiser or commissaires” - specifically the commisaire who pulled alongside them on a motorbike to remonstrate and gesticulate furiously when he saw what they were up to.
“I don’t know why that man was making such a fuss,” said Michel Cornelisse directeur sportif of Alpecin-Deceuninck. “I see crashes happen all week and riders are allowed to return behind the car, so I thought ‘Why not?’ There was no team car around [for Ewan] so I wanted to take him.
“Then the commissaire came and I tried to accelerate but there were two police motorbikes in front of me. I was already going at 80kph. I couldn’t drive faster there. Ewan was almost at the cars, so I don’t know why the guy was so upset.”
To add insult to the knee and shoulder injuries he suffered in his crash, Ewan was also fined and received a time penalty for illegal drafting behind a team car.
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132km to go: Our large breakaway group have a lead of 6min 51sec on the peloton.
After a 40km battle at 43.7km/h, 23 riders have made the break@BORAhansgrohe, @EFprocycling, @IsraelPremTech, @GroupamaFDJ & @TrekSegafredo managed to put multiple riders at the front to chase victory towards Mende #TDFdata #TDF2022 pic.twitter.com/15SSEAfqQG
— letourdata (@letourdata) July 16, 2022
140km to go: Following the intermediate sprint, the breakaway group briefly sheds four riders including Simmons and Fuglsang, who have to work hard to catch up. Caleb Ewan watch: he is 14min 09sec behind the leaders.
142km to go: As the yellow jersey group assimilates the Roglic group, which has caught up with them, the gap goes out to 4min 35sec. The riders in the main bunch are sorting themselves out, taking time to stock up on water bottles and have a drink. At the front of the race, Michael Matthews takes the intermediate sprint points.
Today's breakaway is formed
144km to go: Having welcomed five blow-ins including Michael Matthews into the fold, our breakaway group is now 23-strong. They are – deep breath – Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates), Daniel Martínez (Ineos Grenadiers), Benoît Cosnefroy (Ag2r-Citröen), Felix Grossschartner, Lennard Kämna and Patrick Konrad (Bora-Hansgrohe), Gregor Mühlberger (Movistar), Simon Geschke (Cofidis), Luis Leon Sanchez (Bahrain Victorious), Stefan Küng and Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ), Louis Meintjes (Intermarché-Wanty Gobert), Alberto Bettiol, Neilson Powless and Rigoberto Urán (EF Education-EasyPost), Andreas Kron (Lotto-Soudal), Bauke Mollema and Quinn Simmons (Trek-Segafredo), Jakob Fuglsang, Krists Neilands and Michael Woods (Israel-Premier Tech), Michael Matthews (BikeExchange-Jayco) and Franck Bonnamour (B&B Hotels-KTM)
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148km to go: Our 18-strong breakaway quickly open a gap of 2min 20sec on the yellow jersey group. The Roglic group are a further minute behind. There is another group of 14 riders, including Chris Froome, a minute-and-a-half behind them. Caleb Ewan is riding alone, seven minutes behind the group of stragglers and over 11 minutes off the general pace.
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151km to go: We appear to have our breakaway, a gaggle of 18 riders who have opened a gap of 47 seconds on the yellow jersey group on the second climb of the day.
153km to go: In the polka-dot jersey, Simon Geschke leads the chase to hunt down Bonnampour to try and be first over the climb but is narrowly beaten by a determined Quinn Simmons, who pedals for all he’s worth despite not being in the hunt for the King of the Mountains jersey.
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154km to go: Caruso is reeled in and B&B Hotels-KTM rider Franck Bonnampour, the winner of last year’s combativity award, launches an attack on the Cat 3 Côte de Châtaignier.
155km to go: Spare a thought for Caleb Ewan, who is soldiering on despite being almost 10 minutes and eight kilometres down on the stage leaders.
159km to go: Following the withdrawal of Warren Barguil, who tested positive for Covid and didn’t start yesterday’s stage, his compatriot Victor Lafay abandoned during stage 13, leaving 157 of the original 176 starters to sign on for today’s stage.
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162km to go: The peloton is seriously strung out and Bahrain Victorious rider Damiano Caruso launches an escape bid and opens a gap of a few seconds.
Roglic and Ewan among the early toilers
163km to go: The attacks are coming thick and fast at the front of the main bunch, while the Roglic group of 35 riders toils almost two minutes behind. Cycling alone, Caleb Ewan is now almost seven minutes behind and surely enduring the mother of all existential crises.
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169km to go: The bunch is travelling at a ferocious lick, which is bad news for Caleb Ewan. Nursing an injured knee, he’s now 5min 26sec behind. “I felt really good today actually,” he said foillowing yesterday’s staghe. “That’s why we started to commit our guys to controlling the breakaway and they were doing a really good job. They never got too far ahead, but yeah, I don’t know what happened in the corner.
“My knee is really sore and my shoulder is pretty sore. I broke my collarbone last year, so hopefully that’s alright. Once I went down I didn’t feel so good anymore, and after a big chase to get back on before the final climb, I had nothing left really.”
175km to go: We join today’s stage 17 kilometres in and there are already several talking points after a fast and slightly chaotic start. Following his crash yesterday, Caleb Ewan has already been dropped and is already nearly five minutes off the pace. One suspects the Autralian sprinter is not long for this year’s Tour.
Primoz Roglic has been dropped from the main group and isin a group 1min 40sec behind the main bunch. Nils Powless and Juul Jensen launched a break but have been reeled in following an attack by Tadaj Pogacar.
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Today’s weather: The mercury is expected to hit 40 degrees celsius on today’s stage to Mende, with extra measures being taken to help riders cope with the searing heat on this long, extremely testing stage.
Following his second place finish in yesterday’s stage, Fred Wright said it was easier being in the seven-man breakaway as there was an endless supply of cold water and ice available for he and his fellow escapees to help keep themselves cool.
The sight of cyclists stuffing ice socks down the back of their jerseys has been a common one and in the wake of warnings from the French met office that a heat wave is expected in the south-west until Tuesday, race organisers and local fire services will be pulling out all the stops to help keep the riders and the melting roads on which they are travelling as cool as possible with tens of thousands of gallons of water.
5 years later, the peloton is back in Mende! The finish at the summit of the Côte de la Croix Neuve should guarentee spectacle!😍
— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) July 16, 2022
5 ans après, le peloton est de retour à Mende ! L'arrivée au sommet de la Côte de la Croix Neuve devrait nous garantir du spectacle !😍#TDF2022 pic.twitter.com/7BMSrqmZGH
Top 10 on General Classification after stage 13
- 1. Jonas Vingegaard (Den/Jumbo-Visma) 50hrs 47mins 34secs
- 2. Tadej Pogacar (Slo/UAE Team Emirates) +2mins 22secs
- 3. Geraint Thomas (GB/Ineos Grenadiers) +2mins 26secs
- 4. Romain Bardet (Fra/DSM) +2mins 35secs
- 5. Adam Yates (GB/Ineos Grenadiers) +3mins 44secs
- 6. Nairo Quintana (Col/Arkea Samsic) +3mins 58secs
- 7. David Gaudu (Fra/Groupama-FDJ) +4mins 07secs
- 8. Tom Pidcock (GB/Ineos Grenadiers) +7mins 39secs
- 9. Enric Mas (Spa/Movistar) +9mins 32secs
- 10. Aleksandr Vlasov (Rus/Bora-Hansgrohe) +10mins 06secs
Pedersen wins amid crowd and Covid concerns
Danish sprinter Mads Pedersen, of Trek-Segafredo, took victory in the 13th stage from Le Bourg d’Oisans to Saint-Étienne, after a high-powered seven-rider breakaway dissolved on the rolling roads west of the Rhône. Jeremy Whittle reports from Saint-Étienne.
Stage 14: Saint-Étienne to Mende (192.5km)
Another day for the breakaway specialists, writes WIlliam Fotheringham in his stage-by-stage guide, with a monstrously steep uphill finish on the airfield at Mende, where the Briton Steve Cummings won in 2015. The same large group of riders as the day before will try to make the winning move; the winner will be a strong climber such as Adam Yates.
