Michael Matthews wins Bretagne Classic

Australian Michael Matthews won the Bretagne Classic one-day race on Tuesday.

The three-time Tour de France stage winner and 2017 green jersey winner took top spot with time to spare. Luka Mezgec (Mitchelton-Scott) and Florian Senechal (Deceuninck-Quickstep) finished second and third respectively.

The Team Sunweb rider took the win on his second race day since the restart and eased to victory, having had enough time to sit up and celebrate as he crossed the line.

Matthews' Sunweb teammate Nils Eekhoff, who finished seventh, led on the uphill drag, with Senechal behind him before Mezgec was first to jump from third wheel with Matthews behind.

The duo broke away and it was Matthews who came around with time to spare to win.

Matthews, 29, has fully recovered from the injury suffered at the end of Milan-San Remo where he scraped his hand on the Poggio after being blocked into the wall. Despite being unable to hold his handlebars properly as a result, he managed to win the sprint for third.

"Luka [Mezgec] had to go early in the sprint so I could wait," he said after Tuesday's race.

"I just timed my sprint to perfection, I guess.

"After my crash in Milan-San Remo it was difficult for my head. I knew that I had really good shape but to come back here, for my second race after lockdown, I’m really happy."

1. Michael Matthews (Aus) Team Sunweb 6:01:15

2. Luka Mezgec (Slo) Mitchelton-Scott

3. Florian Senechal (Fra) Deceuninck-Quickstep

4 .Aime De Gendt (Bel) Circus-Wanty Gobert

5. Alessandro Fedeli (Ita) Nippo Delko Provence

6. Quinn Simmons (USA) Trek-Segafredo

7. Nils Eekhoff (Ned) Team Sunweb

8. Daniel McLay (GBr) Team Arkea-Samsic

9. Anthony Roux (Fra) Groupama-FDJ

10. Yukiya Arashiro (Jpn) Bahrain McLaren