The BikeExchange-Jayco star was elated upon winning his first stage at the Tour de France since 2017, after the disappointment of finishing second in stages six and eight respectively this year.
The victory for the 31-year-old came after he joined a 24-man breakaway at the beginning of the race, before attacking with 40 kilometres to go and taking back his lead from Alberto Bettiol (EF Education–EasyPost) on the final climb of the day following an enthralling battle between the two.
The Canberran reached the finish line with an impressive 15-second advantage over his Italian rival and appeared overjoyed as he embraced his coaches and teammates at the end of the race.
"I wanted to show everyone that I am not just a sprinter, I can also ride like I rode today," Matthews said.
"I was just thinking of my daughter on that final climb the whole way up to the finish, and my wife, for how much sacrifice they make for me to make my dreams come true.
"Hopefully today I showed them the reason why we sacrifice so much."
In a storied career, Matthews joined BikeExchange-Jayco in 2013, where he crashed out of the Giro d'Italia in stage 9 of the following year but won the tenth stage of the 2016 Tour de France.
The speedster signed with Team DSM ahead of the 2017 season, where he memorably won stage 14 of that year's Tour en route to claiming the green jersey at the end of the race.
Matthews rejoined BikeExchange-Jayco in August 2020, seeing limited success up until he took out the points classification in the recent Tour de Suisse before claiming the stage honours in the Tour overnight (AEST).
Speaking after the race, the Canberran claimed that a conversation with his wife changed everything, and subsequently led to his success in last night's stage.
“When I came back to Team BikeExchange, I was really excited, really motivated and I wasn’t really able to get the best out of myself for the last year and a half," he said.
"For some reason, being second, third, fourth. I was thinking about Gerry in the moment, the amount of support he’s given me over the years since Under 19s. I try my best every single race but it doesn’t always pay off.
“Yesterday, I had a big chat with my wife we were thinking that maybe it wouldn’t happen at this Tour de France. She said, ‘give it everything, think about your daughter in that moment where you’re deciding if you win or not'.
"My wife and my daughter were in my mind that whole final climb, that was what gave me the extra legs to get over first, all I can say is thank you to them.”
The Tour de France continues tonight with Stage 15, a stage for the sprinters as the race travels 202km from Rodez to the historic city of Carcasonne. Watch on the SBS SKODA Tour Tracker from 8:55pm (AEST) with the SBS and SBS On Demand broadcast starting from 9:30pm (AEST).
