Tour de France: Matthews wins stage 16
July 18, 2017
The 165-kilometer (103-mile) ride from Le-Puy-en-Velay to Romans-sur-Isere ended in a veritable photo finish on Tuesday.
Australian Michael Matthews crossed the line less than half a bike's length ahead of Norwegian Edvald Boasson Hagen, with Germany's John Degenkolb just centimeters further back. Matthews, from Team Sunweb, triumphed on a stage where severe crosswinds in the closing phase disturbed and spread out the peloton.
Tour de France stage 15: Bauke Mollema wins his first-ever stage, Froome leads
Overall leader Chris Froome managed to stick with the leading pack and therefore kept hold of the yellow jersey. His three closest challengers - Fabio Aru, Romain Bardet and Rigoberto Uran - were all able to keep pace and the leading quartet crossed the line together.
The race remains wide open as the Tour heads into the tricky alpine stages 17 and 18 - with just half a minute separating the top four riders. Froome's Team Sky teammate Mikel Landa is next in line, but 80 seconds behind.
Dan Martin, meanwhile, lost more than 50 seconds to the leaders, rolling in almost a minute adrift of Froome and friends. Martin drops to seventh in the standings, two minutes off the lead, as a result.
Tour de France stage 14: Matthews gets surprise win, Froome returns to the lead
msh (AP, Reuters)