Four times a Tour de France stage winner, Michael Matthews had high hopes of taking a fifth win on stage 8 on Saturday. Sadly for the Australian, he was left completely off the pace, much to his own confusion.
“For me I don’t really have words,” he said at the finish in quotes collected by Velo, after crossing the line in a very disappointing 156th position, nearly six minutes down on the eventual stage winner, the Green Jersey wearing Biniam Girmay. “Once it got really hard, I had nothing. I got caught down the back in the crosswind. I heard on the radio that one of our GC guys was off the back, and I thought it was better to go back and help him. I had no energy, no power, I don’t know what is going on.”
As mentioned, stage 8 was a day long targeted by Matthews and Team Jayco AlUla as one where the Australian could take a fifth Tour de France stage win. “I think a few weeks ago this was a very good finish for me,” he said, speaking to Eurosport post-stage. “Basically ever since I started the Tour de Suisse, everything has been shit. I don’t know what is the issue. My back tooth is coming through. I was thinking to get it out between Suisse and Tour, but I didn’t. Maybe that is the issue, I don’t know.”
“Going into Switzerland I was really good. Training looked really good, the numbers looked really good,” he continued. “But since then I’ve just been shit. It’s unfortunate. I was really looking forward to this stage, it is one I marked down for myself a couple of weeks ago. To finish here like this now is not what I worked so hard for. That’s for sure.”
With many stages still to come however, if Matthews can start riding himself into the Grand Tour, opportunities could still present themselves in the coming weeks.
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