Daniel Martin makes his way through the crowd after losing time during yesterday’s 16th stage of the Tour de France. Photo: Getty Images

Tuesday July 18, Stage 16: Le-Puy-En-Velay to Roman-sur-Iseres (165km)

With today's stage starting with an undulating opening 65km, followed by a long descent and a second half that was suited to a mass bunch sprint, it was impossible to predict what was going to happen this morning.

Expand Close Team Sunweb rider Michael Matthews of Australia reacts on the podium after winning the stage. Photo: Reuters REUTERS / Facebook

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Whatsapp Team Sunweb rider Michael Matthews of Australia reacts on the podium after winning the stage. Photo: Reuters

The lead in to the opening climb saw us face a three-quarter headwind which made it very difficult to get away, although it didn't stop Allesandro Di Marchi being the first one to attack when the flag dropped.

On the slope, I made it into a chase group of around a dozen and we made it across to Demma's group and I thought we were gone for the day until Sunweb sprinter Michael Matthews got across to us.

Known as 'Bling' for his diamond, the Aussie begun the day second overall in the green jersey competition, 79 points behind Marcel Kittel of Quickstep and knew that if he got into the breakaway today, he could earn 20 points at the intermediate sprint after 120km and possibly another 30 if he won the stage which would narrow the gap considerably.

With Bling in the move though my cousin, and Kittel's team-mate, Dan Martin pulled the whole bunch across and shut him down.

Shortly after we were caught, another seven or eight of us went clear again but just under a kilometre from the top, Bling got across again.

This time Quickstep's Jack Bauer took up the chase and they caught us just after the top where the peloton split in half under the pressure and Kittel was one of the ones dropped.

Sunweb had six or seven riders in our group so as soon as they realised Kittel had gone out the back door, they went to the front and drove it on, distancing Kittel by over three minutes as Matthews won the intermediate sprint, and making sure the Aussie was up front to contest the finish.

My BMC team had six in the group and were hoping to split it again coming to the finish so we had Amael Moinard sacrifice himself to go back and get the last supply of bottles from the car before Demma moved us up front alongside Sky as we hit an uphill section with around 12km to go.

With a strong crosswind blowing over our shoulder, I didn't know if Sky were planning the same thing or if they were just trying to guard against getting caught out but I got my answer when we turned a corner and they accelerated hard on the drag.

With their riders just moving across the road enough to give their team-mates and nobody else shelter from the wind blowing diagonally across us, the rest of us were soon scrambling behind them in an effort to get respite from the strong crosswind.

I was struggling in the last couple of riders, riding so close to the crowds in the gutter that a millimetre more would have brought me down.

When Sky had pulled us clear of the others, they moved across the road and things settled down.

With me in the whittled-down group were team-mates Damiano Caruso, who begun the day in 10th place overall, Stefan Kung, Mickey Schar and our sprinter Greg Van Avermaet.

As well as keeping Damiano at the front of the race, our main aim then was to get Greg into position to allow him contest the stage win.

With Greg on my wheel, I sprinted under the two-kilometre-to-go banner to get him into position dropping him in fifth place in the line as we hit a right hander with 900metres to go.

Greg tried to go early, from 500m out, but it was a few metres too far and he was passed and finished fourth on the stage as Matthews took his second win of this Tour and closed the gap to Kittel in the green jersey competition.

We missed the stage win again but Damiano took a handy 51 seconds and moved up to ninth overall, while it wasn't a great day for Dan, who missed the final split, lost the same amount of time and dropped down two places to seventh overall.

Unfortunately Dan was caught up in the battle for the green jersey today and had only two riders with him in our front group as the rest were with Kittel. It's easy to presume the ploy was tactical today; that Quickstep thought they'd rejoin the front after the first climb so Kittel could contest the stage win again.

But the question is whether those riders waited for Kittel on the climb or whether they were dropped. Philippe Gilbert didn't start this morning with gastro problems.

The Belgian would have been a key teammate for Dan in the finish today but if he has been sick then maybe more guys are suffering from the same thing.

Tour de France, Live Eurosport 12.15, TG4 12.35, ITV4 12.30

Martin: the Team's really struggling

Michael Matthews won stage 16 of the Tour de France to Romans-sur-Isere as Chris Froome fought off fierce crosswinds to protect the yellow jersey.

However, Ireland's Dan Martin was caught on the wrong side of the split as he surrendered 51 seconds and dropped to seventh overall, now two minutes and three seconds back.

Jack Bauer did his best to drag Martin back up to the leaders, but Martin could not keep up with his Quick-Step Floors team-mate.

"I was a bit sick yesterday and then some of the other guys have been sick as well," Martin said. "The team's really struggling today. 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.

"They did an incredible job all day. Jack was killing it at the end. I wasn't in a bad position, but it was probably me who didn't have the legs or the power in the wind. It happens. It's unfortunate. We worked so hard to be in this position but it's not over."

Irish Independent