Greig Leach

Michael Matthews (BikeExchange) went in the early break with the intention of getting to the intermediate sprint first. The first to go off the front was the break away man himself, Thomas De Gendt (Lotto Soudal). Everyone expected him to go, so everyone wanted to join him in the effort. The break had grown to 32. Matthews has the ability to climb better than most sprinters so he was able to get over the early uncategorized climbs to vie more maximum sprint points in his quest to take the Maillot Vert off the shoulders of Cavendish. Davide Ballerini (Deceuninck-Quick Step), Cav's teammate tried to out sprint the Aussie sprinter in hopes of minimizing the points Matthews could collect. Cav still has a substantial lead in the competition, however he got no points today. If Matthews can keep up this raid on the following mountain stages, he could just be the one wearing the Maillot Vert in Paris.