Matthews keeps green jersey in Swiss tour

Michael Matthews lost the yellow jersey but has held onto the green sprinter's jersey in the Tour of Switzerland.

Australian rider Michael Matthews lost the yellow jersey in the Tour of Switzerland after falling well back on the first mountain stage.

The Australian rider, who won stage three, finished over 16 minutes behind stage winner, American, Larry Warbasse who was part of a group of four riders who took off in an early breakaway.

With 8.5 kilometres to go the 26-year-old American found himself alone at the front of the race, with a three minute advantage to the quickly-thinning peloton.

He would go on to win the stage and take the yellow jersey, with a 40 second lead over Italian BMC rider Damian Caruso.

Despite a bad day in the mountains, Matthews still held onto the green sprinter's jersey with 14 points, along with Caruso.

Giro d'Italia winner Tom Dumoulin, a Sunweb teammate of Matthews' is six minutes and 29 seconds behind Warbasse in the overall classification, directly behind Australia's Team BORA rider Jay McCarthy, who leads the Aussie charge at five minutes, 38 seconds behind Warbasse.