When the going got tough on the steep Cote du Mont Brouilly in the finale of yesterday's fourth stage of Paris-Nice, Orica-GreenEDGE sprinter Michael Matthews showed his great versatility. The Australian crested the summit alongside the likes of Rui Costa and Carlos Betancur in an 8-rider group that was in pursuit of the duos Geraint Thomas/Tom-Jelte Slagter and Ion Izagirre/Wilco Kelderman and ended up taking 4th on a day where he got very close to a surprise victory.

 

Michael Matthews proved quickest of the reduced bunch, leading home a chase group of 26 riders on the fourth stage of Paris Nice. With three riders up the road, Matthews’ sprint was good for fourth place. Tom Jelte Slagter (Garmin-Sharp) bested late race breakaway companion Geraint Thomas (Sky) to win the nail-biter of a finale. Wilco Kelderman (Belkin) placed third at 5” after attacking the chase group and narrowly holding his chasers off to the line.

 

With the summit of the category two climb situated 14 kilometres from the finish line, it was always highly probable that the race winning move would take shape on its slopes. Slagter attacked the reduced bunch near the summit. Thomas jumped to respond, making contact on the technical descent. The peloton shattered in their wake.

 

The break benefited from a lack of cohesion in the chase group, which started with only four riders but swelled to include 27 ahead of the finish. Matthews was the lone ORICA-GreenEDGE representative in the group after losing Jens Keukeleire and Simon Yates over the upper slopes of Col du Mont Brouilly. Without teammates, Matthews opted to save his energy for the finish rather than taking charge of the chase.

 

"We knew the last climb was hard and we hoped to get over it with numbers," sports director Laurenzo Lapage said. "After that, we wanted to use our numbers to set up something for Bling [Matthews]. The plan worked, and we came close again to another top result.

 

"We didn’t go into the early break because we needed as many riders as possible to assure the guys that were meant to stay with Bling on the last climb were in a good position at the bottom. We knew that a lot of teams had an interest in this stage, so it wasn’t worth it to waste energy in the break.

 

"We had Jens Keukeleire and Simon Yates still with Bling at that point [near the top of the climb].

 

"The group split and Bling was on his own in a group of about 20 riders. A lot of the other scrappy sprinter types were alone, too. The group had a hard time working together, and because of this, Slagter and Thomas stayed away. If the group had more cooperation, it would have been a sprint – and we’re confident Bling could have won it.

 

"The boys are working well together and we can see in our results that it works for us. The first two days we had bad luck with crashes at the finish, but we know we were riding well as a team. We have the feeling that this teamwork will be rewarded in the next stages."

 

You can read a preview of stage 5 here and follow our live coverage at 14.25 CET on CyclingQuotes.com/live.