Spaniard Oscar Freire of the Rabobank team dominated some of the world's fastest sprinters to win the ninth stage of the Tour de France on Tuesday.
After 169.5km of racing from Bordeaux, Serguei Gonchar of the T-Mobile team retained the race leader's yellow jersey ahead of the first climbing stage of the race, a 190.5km ride from Cambo-Les-Bains to Pau.
Gonchar, the first Ukrainian to wear the coveted yellow jersey, holds a one-minute lead over American Floyd Landis of Phonak, with his T-Mobile teammate Michael Rogers of Australia third at 1:08.
Freire, meanwhile, now has three career stage wins on the race following his victory in the fifth stage at Caen and his maiden win in 2002.
The Spaniard kept his cool in the long home straight to surge past Belgian world champion Tom Boonen and Erik Zabel before holding off a resurgent Robbie McEwen by a matter of centimeters at the finish.
Boonen, who has yet to win a stage on this year's race, finished fourth behind Germany's Zabel.
Freire said his recipe for success was simple: "No matter what kind of sprint you are in, you have to be at the front if you want to win."
"I managed to get in a good position, and that helped me a lot. But I wouldn't have got there without the help of [teammate] Juan Antonio Flecha. You don't see on television how much work riders like that do for the sprinters, so I want to dedicate this win to him," he said.
With yesterday's first climbing stage set to begin the process of identifying genuine yellow jersey hopefuls, the peloton was delighted the organizers had decided to squeeze in a flat stage after Monday's rest day.
The sprinters teams in particular had this stage in their sights, and closed in on an early breakaway, composed of Christian Knees, Stephane Auge and Walter Beneteau, in the final 5km.
In the home straight the Credit Agricole team of Norwegian Thor Hushovd dropped back as Quick Step's Boonen and Milram sprinter Zabel pulled slightly ahead of the bunch.
However both sprinters appeared to peak too early and Freire kept watch patiently until making his move in the final 30m.
Davitamon sprinter McEwen, who has won three stages in the race so far, made a stunning maneuver, pulling wildly out to his left and powering ahead to miss victory by the breadth of a wheel rim.
He almost clashed with Freire, but in the end he gave the Spaniard a friendly pat on the back.
Boonen meanwhile was left without a win yet again, and with the ignominy of 36-year-old Zabel, 11 years his senior, beating him to third place.
However, the Belgian said: "I'm happy with my sprint and accept the defeat although I perhaps sprinted a bit too early."
Zabel meanwhile could not hide his joy after coming so close to claiming his first win in the race since 2002.
"It was just like the good old days," the delighted German said.
"I haven't been so close to victory this year, and even last year I think. It's a great performance for me and shows that I can just about compete with all the fast guys there like Freire and McEwen," Zabel said.
For a moment, Zabel thought he had secured the victory.
"When I passed Boonen I thought I had a chance to win it. That was until I saw Freire and McEwen coming past me just before the finish line," he said.
Four-time NBA all-star DeMarcus Cousins arrived in Taiwan with his family early yesterday to finish his renewed contract with the Taiwan Beer Leopards in the T1 League. Cousins initially played a four-game contract with the Leopards in January. On March 18, the Taoyuan-based team announced that Cousins had renewed his contract. “Hi what’s up Leopard fans, I’m back. I’m excited to be back and can’t wait to join the team,” Cousins said in a video posted on the Leopard’s Facebook page. “Most of all, can’t wait to see you guys, the fans, next weekend. So make sure you come out and support the Beer
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was