Australia's Michael Matthews celebrates as he crosses the finish line ahead of Belgium's Greg Van Avermaet at the end of the 181,5 km fourteenth stage of the 104th edition of the Tour de France cycling race yesterday between Blagnac and Rodez.
Rodez: Australian Michael Matthews won the 14th stage of the Tour de France yesterday as Chris Froome retook the yellow jersey from Fabio Aru.
Matthews won comfortably ahead of Olympic champion Greg Van Avermaet in the tough uphill sprint finish to the 181.5km stage from Blagnac to Rodez, with Norway's Edvald Boasson Hagen third.
But Aru was caught out well down in the peloton as gaps appeared in the finale, allowing reigning champion Froome to retake the jersey he'd lost to the Italian on Thursday.
In this type of finish, positioning is crucial and Aru failed to manouevre himself to the front of the peloton in a rapid last 10km.
Froome did, though, and was in the right place when the sprint for the line started in the last 600 metres.
The Briton finished seventh, just a second behind Matthews, while Aru was well down, 25 seconds further adrift.
Froome now leads the race by 19sec from Aru with Romain Bardet third at 23sec having also lost four seconds to Froome in the finish, although gained two on the yellow jersey.
Of the overall contenders, only Rigoberto Uran and Dan Martin stuck with Froome.
Uran remains fourth but closed in to 29sec off the lead, with Martin also gaining six seconds and now at 1:26 in sixth, just behind Froome's Sky team-mate Mikel Landa at 1:17. Meanwhile, Tour de France leader Fabio Aru's task in holding onto the yellow jersey suffered a blow on Friday as key team-mate Jakob Fuglsang quit the race.
Denmark's Fuglsang was expected to challenge for overall victory after winning the chief pre-Tour warm-up event, the Criterium du Dauphine in June. And he was sitting fifth overall before a crash on Wednesday in which he suffered two fractures to his arm. He struggled badly on Thursday's Pyrenean stage, falling out of overall contention and when he was dropped early on Friday by the peloton, he decided to call it quits.
"It's a big loss for me and the whole team," admitted Aru, who had already seen another team-mate in Dario Cataldo crash out on Wednesday.
