Tour de France: Michael Matthews hails 'dream' first stage victory as Chris Froome retains yellow jersey

Michael Matthews collected his first career Tour de France stage win with victory ahead of world champion Peter Sagan in Revel on Tuesday.

Australian sprinter Matthews won from the remnants of the breakaway at the end of the 197-kilometre stage 10 from Escaldes-Engordany, having had two Orica-BikeExchange team-mates in the final group of seven riders out in front.

The 25-year-old had time to sit up and celebrate at the line even as Sagan made a desperate bid to snatch the win, and the Tinkoff rider had to settle for an all-too-familiar second place.

Team Sky's Chris Froome finished safely in the peloton almost 10 minutes behind Matthews to retain the yellow jersey.

Matthews has now won stages in all three Grand Tours. “It's unbelievable, it's just sinking in,” he said. “I was close to giving in at this race after crashes in recent years. I thought maybe this race is not for me but today my dream has come true.”

For Sagan, it was a 17th second-place in Tour de France stages, but he could console himself after reclaiming the green jersey from Mark Cavendish.

The sun was shining as the race left Escaldes-Engordany, immediately onto the ascent of the Port d'Envilar, the highest point of this year's Tour.

Several breaks tried to get away on the way up but it was Lampre-Merida's Rui Costa who crested the summit alone before they tackled a long descent in treacherous thick fog.

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That made it difficult for the riders to keep tabs on their rivals and Froome admitted he had to pay particularly close attention to Movistar's Nairo Quintana.

The Colombian, who is 23 seconds down in fourth place overall, attacked when snow caused poor visibility on the Stelvio during the 2014 Giro d'Italia - a race he went on to win.

“Descending in that mist and not being able to see much of what was going on, I imagine it felt a little bit like riding in the Giro a few years ago when Nairo slipped off the front,” Froome said. “I was just trying to keep an eye on him.”

As they dropped back into France from Andorra a 15-man break assembled, with Sagan, Giro d'Italia winner Vincenzo Nibali, and stage seven winner Steve Cummings among their number.

With the opening climb out of the way, the rest of the stage was largely flat but light rain fell as the break pulled almost seven minutes clear.

As they neared Revel the break split in two, with Sagan going clear along with Sam Dumoulin, Greg van Avermaet, Edvald Boasson Hagen and Orica-BikeExchange trio Matthews, Daryl Impey and Luke Durbridge.

Inside the last 15km, the peloton eased up to allow the breakaway their fun and it became a battle between the front seven. Sagan led them over the short category three climb, the Cote de Saint Ferreol, seven kilometres from the finish before Durbridge, having done his turn for his team-mates, dropped back. Van Avermaet was the first to light it up on the home straight but as the others responded it was Matthews who found the burst of speed to break clear.

“It was never the plan to go for a breakaway [on Tuesday],” Matthews added. “We wanted a bunch sprint finish but we're such a strong group of guys. Durbridge and Impey gave me everything to win today. I have no words to describe what they did for me.”