Meanwhile, overall leader Jonas Wingegord from Denmark (“Jumbo-Visma”) finished together with his biggest rival, Slovenian Tadeja Pogachar (UAE).
On Saturday, cyclists covered 192.5 kilometers with four climbs of the third category and one climb of the second category.
A breakaway of 23 cyclists, including Neyland (“Israel-Premier Tech”), formed quite quickly. In the only intermediate sprint finish around the 50 kilometer mark, Neiland was only behind Matthews (“BikeExchange – Jayco”).
The advantage of the breakaway group was more than ten minutes, but the peloton included the overall leader Wingegord and the Dane’s closest followers. From the breakaway athletes, Matthews tried to ride alone about 50 kilometers before the finish, but was later joined by three other cyclists. The group itself split into several parts and Neyland was initially in the third of them.
The Dane Andreas Kron (“Lotto Soudal”) was the first to break away from the leading four, whose bicycle tire burst and he was forced to join the third group, which was less than a minute behind the leaders. The leading trio – Mathews, Austrian Felix Grosschartner (“BORA – hansgrohe”) and Spaniard Luis Leon Sanchez (“Bahrain – Victorious”) – went together on the final climb.
With about 3.2 kilometers to go, Matthews went on a solo breakaway as Grosschartner and Sanchez caught up. Less than two and a half kilometers before the end of the stage, Matthews was joined by the Italian Alberto Bettiol (“EF Education-EasyPost”), who for a moment left his rival behind him, but the Australian gathered his strength and responded to the Italian, regaining the lead half a kilometer later.
Then there was the descent and the way to the finish, which Matthews did alone, finishing the stage in four hours, 30 minutes and 53 seconds. Betiol lost 15 seconds, but the Frenchman Thibaut Pinot (“Groupama – FDJ”) finished 34 seconds after the winner.
Neiland lost 17 minutes and 59 seconds to the winner, while Skujiņš (“Trek-Segafredo”) was 23 minutes and 26 seconds behind.
Wingegord and Pogachar finished side by side, in the third tenth, both ending the stage with the same finishing time. The Dane is ahead of his rival by two minutes and 22 seconds, but the British Geraint Thomas (“Ineos Grenadiers”) loses another 21 seconds, who lost 17 seconds to Pogachar today and moved away from the second place.
Neilands and Skujiņš are more than two hours behind, occupying the 91st and 95th places, respectively.
This is Skujiņš’s fifth start in the “Tour de France” competition, while Neyland is participating in this competition for the second time.
21 stages must be measured in the bicycle race, the winner will be determined on July 24.
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