The battle for temporary command of the yellow and green jerseys on the Tour de France provided some thrilling racing, and score-settling, on the 14th stage from Colmar to Besancon on Saturday.
Russian Sergei Ivanov of Katusha came over the finish line solo after decisively attacking his group of 11 breakaway companions 11km from home.
It was only 5 minutes, 36 seconds later, when Italy’s Rinaldo Nocentini, racing for AG2R, crossed with all the race favorites, that he was confirmed as still being in possession of the race leaders’ yellow jersey.
PHOTO: EPA
With three stages in the mountains spread over the next four days, the battle for overall victory between Lance Armstrong’s Astana team and their rivals was postponed as the teams so far devoid of stage success went on the hunt.
However, on a day marked tragically by the death of a woman spectator hit by a police motorcycle, there was no lack of drama with scores, apparently, being settled.
Armstrong and his Astana team gave the thumbs up to an early 12-man breakaway which, for most of the day, had his former teammate Hincapie, now racing for Columbia, in the virtual yellow jersey.
PHOTO: AFP
Hincapie, the only rider at Armstrong’s side in all seven of his Tour triumphs, came over the finish line 16 seconds behind Ivanov, but in the end his efforts were all for nothing.
Thanks to some chasing help from the Garmin team, AG2R were able to keep Nocentini in the yellow jersey as they raced over the finish line 5 minutes, 36 seconds behind Ivanov.
“We spoke with the Garmin team and asked them to help us in the chase,” Nocentini said. “They put riders at the front in the final 10km, 15km and that gave us a bit of freshness.”
The end result was that Garmin and Columbia won nothing, and Nocentini kept the jersey by five seconds.
Columbia team manager Rolf Aldag admitted they had been hoping to have Hincapie and top sprinter Mark Cavendish in the yellow and green jerseys respectively, but he admitted being mystified at Garmin’s tactics.
“We were hoping for green and yellow, and we ended up with nothing, but that’s sport,” Aldag said. “It was other teams who came to the front with 10km to go to [help AG2R] chase, specifically Garmin, but that’s bike racing, we have to live with it.”
To add to their woes, Columbia, thanks to Cavendish, were handed a reprimand by race officials.
Norwegian sprinter Thor Hushovd said he narrowly avoided disaster when Cavendish tried to run him into the barriers. The winner of four stages so far, Cavendish was later disqualified from the stage for the infringement.
The decision meant Hushovd reinforced his lead in the points competition.
“I could pass him and when he saw me coming he tried to push me into the barriers, and that’s not fair game,” Hushovd said.
With Nocentini expected to lose the jersey on the first day of three in the Alps, it left Ivanov as arguably the day’s only winner.
“I knew there were guys behind me pushing hard who also wanted to win the stage, that is why I gave all my energy to push to the line,” the Russian said. “I only looked back when I was right on the finish, as I didn’t want to lose even half a second. I concentrated on pushing to the line, it felt like it was pulling me on, which is why I barely looked back.”
Bologna on Thursday advanced past Empoli to reach their first Coppa Italia final in more than half a century. Thijs Dallinga’s 87th-minute header earned Bologna a 2-1 win and his side advanced 5-1 on aggregate. Giovanni Fabbian opened the scoring for Bologna with a header seven minutes in. Then Viktor Kovalenko equalized for Empoli in the 30th minute by turning in a rebound to finish off a counterattack. Bologna won the first leg 3-0. In the May 14 final in Rome, Bologna are to face AC Milan, who eliminated city rivals Inter 4-1 on aggregate following a 3-0 win on Wednesday. Bologna last reached the
The Minnesota Timberwolves, with so many promising performances spoiled by late mistakes fresh in their memory bank, sure timed this strong finish well. Jaden McDaniels scored a career playoff-high 30 points and spearheaded Minnesota’s stifling defense on an ailing Luka Doncic, and the Timberwolves beat the Los Angeles Lakers 116-104 to take a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven Western Conference first-round series in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Friday night. “Jaden never looks tired. He looks like he could play 48 minutes,” said teammate Anthony Edwards, who had 29 points, eight rebounds and eight assists. Julius Randle added 22 points for the Wolves, who outscored
Inter’s defense of their Italian Serie A title was hit with a setback on Sunday as they lost 1-0 at home to AS Roma, while Scott McTominay netted a brace as SSC Napoli beat Torino 2-0 to go top of the table. No fixtures were played on Friday or Saturday because of the funeral of Pope Francis in Rome, meaning the full round of Serie A matches took place on Sunday and yesterday. Matias Soule’s first-half strike for Roma knocked Inter off top spot earlier in the day before new Napoli opened up a three-point buffer with victory in Sunday’s
Ethiopia’s Tigst Assefa yesterday set a women’s only world record of 2 hours, 15 minutes, 50 seconds as she won the London Marathon, while Kenya’s Sabastian Sawe put a star-studded men’s field to the sword. For 28-year-old Assefa it was ample compensation for finishing runner-up in London and the Paris Olympics last year — especially as bitter Dutch rival, the Ethiopia-born Sifan Hassan, finished third. Assefa dropped Kenya’s Joyciline Jepkosgei as the race, played out in blazing sunshine and with thousands lining the route, entered its business end. She came home almost three minutes clear of the Kenyan. Hassan, who beat her in
RSS