Contusions left Australian struggling to breathe overnight
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Michael Matthews (Orica-GreenEdge) was caught up in the crash
An arial shot of the crash (Image credit: Twitter / Radsport)
Riders crash during stage 3 at the Tour de France
Michael Matthews (Orica-GreenEdge)(Image credit: Fotoreporter Sirotti)
Simon Gerrans (Orica-GreenEdge) in the race ambulance(Image credit: Twitter / Radsport)
Michael Matthews was one of five Orica-GreenEdge riders to hit the deck during a nasty crash on stage 3 of the Tour de France on Monday. After a quick assessment by the Tour’s medical team on the scene, it was thought that the Australian had broken his ribs but further inspection later revealed a much less worrying prognosis.
It is now believed that Matthews is suffering from some minor contusions to his ribs and he will survive to fight another day. “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 ahead of the start of stage 4 from Seraing to Cambrai.
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Born in Ireland to a cycling family and later moved to the Isle of Man, so there was no surprise when I got into the sport. Studied sports journalism at university before going on to do a Masters in sports broadcast. After university I spent three months interning at Eurosport, where I covered the Tour de France. In 2012 I started at Procycling Magazine, before becoming the deputy editor of Procycling Week. I then joined Cyclingnews, in December 2013.
