Michael Matthews will live some difficult days. The Orica GreenEDGE rider hit the ground during the nasty crash on stage 3 of the Tour de France on Monday. He is suffering from some contusions but he does not want to withdraw.

"I’m a bit sore. The skin off isn’t that bad, a lot of riders hit me at about 70 kilometres per hour into my ribs and my back. So that’s the real sore point at the moment", explained Matthews. "It was really hard. I went to the ambulance and they said that I might have broken ribs but I wanted to finish the stage and see in the x-ray after what the damage is. They think it’s just some contusions to my ribs so hopefully in the next couple of days it’ll be ok."

Yesterday, he finished 190th with 16'53" behind Tony Martin (Etixx-Quick Step). It was a very long day for the Australian rider who is discovering the three-week race. "Through the night last night, I was really struggling to breathe. Every time I move it’s like someone is putting a knife in my chest,” he explained. “It wasn’t great. I actually woke up in the middle of the night having panic attacks thinking that I couldn’t breathe. That was quite scary but I was able to get a little bit of sleep. Enough to feel a little bit better today."