CHRIS Froome fought through fierce crosswinds to retain the yellow jersey as Michael Matthews won a frantic stage 16 of the Tour de France to Romans-sur-Isere.
Froome’s Team Sky took the initiative in causing late splits in the peloton, protecting his narrow lead as Irishman Dan Martin was caught out and lost 51 seconds.
Only 22 riders made it into the front group, but that was still enough for a select sprint, with Australian Matthews claiming his second stage win of this Tour in a photo finish ahead of Norway’s Edvald Boasson Hagen.
German John Degenkolb finished third but remonstrated with Matthews afterwards, claiming the Team Sunweb rider blocked his sprint.
The peloton battled strong winds over lengthy stretches of the 165 kilometre stage from Le Puy-en-Velay, but the much-anticipated splits did not come until late in the day as Sky decided attack was the best form of defence.
Froome said: “For us it was more about just being on the right side of it. Knowing it was going to kick off on that open section in the last 20 kilometres to go, the guys committed to that and we saw the gaps opening out straight away. We weren’t really concerned about what the other teams were doing.
“It was more about what we needed to do and being in the right place and the right time for us.”
Froome leads the Tour, the closest in history at this stage in the race, by 18 seconds from Italian national champion Fabio Aru, with Frenchman Romain Bardet a further five seconds back.
Colombian Rigoberto Uran is fourth, only 29 seconds down.
Martin dropped to seventh, two minutes and three seconds back, with Bury rider Simon Yates of Orica-Scott up to sixth in the best young riders’ white jersey, one second ahead of Martin.
It proved a hugely profitable day for Matthews, who took both the stage win and the intermediate sprint to cut his deficit in the points classification from 79 to 29 as Marcel Kittel struggled in the green jersey, finishing in a group more than 16 minutes behind the leaders.
Matthews had to wait for confirmation of his victory as Boasson Hagen – hoping to win on Nelson Mandela Day for his South African-based Team Dimension Data – found himself on the wrong side of a photo finish for the second time in this Tour.
And it was while he was waiting for that confirmation that Matthews was confronted by Trek-Segafredo’s Degenkolb, who appeared to grab him around the neck.
“I did my sprint, I think it was a clean sprint,” Matthews said. “I didn’t do anything wrong but obviously he saw it differently. I didn’t see it from his angle but if I did something wrong the officials would say something.
“After the finish I was waiting for the result. He came past and did something on the way past. The officials saw that and I’m not sure what they’re going to do about it, but it was not very sportsmanlike.”
Degenkolb claimed he had been blocked by his rival.
He said: “You are obviously very angry if you cannot go for the victory. If you know you have the legs to overtake him, that’s very disappointing. For me it’s very clear. You see he is going off his line into my line.”
Neither incident was mentioned in the jury’s report.
Sunweb were instrumental in causing the early split that left Kittel behind, attacking from the off.
They may not have known it at the time, but they were capitalising on a Quick-Step Floor team weakened by illness.
“I was a bit sick yesterday and then some of the other guys have been sick as well,” Martin said. “We put on a brave face this morning hoping that they would be able to protect me but in the end I only had Gianluca (Brambilla) and Jack (Bauer).”
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