The race for the 2006 Tour de France yellow jersey could come down to a duel between an American and a Russian.
But before Floyd Landis begins his battle in the Alps to defend the race's yellow jersey against Denis Menchov, Ukrainian Yaroslav Popovych made sure that Lance Armstrong's former team is not completely forgotten.
Discovery Channel began Friday's 12th stage still smarting from their almost wholesale collapse on the second of two days in the Pyrenees, which virtually ended their yellow jersey hopes.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Popovych, one of the riders who suffered in the absence of the now-retired Armstrong, didn't wait to start the healing process.
The 26-year-old was given a hint of what he had to do by team manager Johan Bruyneel, and he ended up claiming his first Tour stage win after outfoxing Oscar Freire and Alessandro Ballan 2km from the finish line.
"It was a hard stage because I'm still suffering from yesterday's ride," said Popovych, who becomes Discovery's best placed rider moving up to 10th in the general classification 4:15 behind Landis.
"I'm far off in the general classification, so after yesterday we've switched to going for stages wins," he said.
Landis, who left Armstrong's former team, US Postal, because of disagreements with the Texan, retained his eight-second lead over Frenchman Cyril Dessel of AG2R.
Menchov is third at 1:01 while Australian Cadel Evans is fourth at 1:17 ahead of an anticipated three-day battle in the Alps beginning on Tuesday.
Bruyneel said before the race on Friday that only stage wins would help them get over their performance in the Pyrenees, where their main hope George Hincapie finished over 21 minutes in arrears.
"We've got 10 days to show that our race is not finished. We'll at least be trying to win a stage," said the Belgian.
Less than five hours later, Popovych gave Bruyneel a reason to believe their race is not over.
"We had a team meeting this morning. We talked about things and how we were going to ride the rest of the Tour," said Popovych. "I was really disappointed yesterday. Leaving the team bus this morning, Johan [Bruyneel] told me that it was time for me to go out and win a stage."
The Ukrainian, a former world under-23 champion, was recruited to Discovery as a possible replacement for Armstrong.
Having failed to live up to the potential which many observers believe he has, Popovych said himself that going for the yellow jersey will have to wait.
"Everybody says I have great potential, but it's true I haven't had great results in the past few years," added Popovych, who showed early professional promise by finishing fifth overall on the 2004 Giro d'Italia.
"But in the next few years I'll be looking to improve and focus a bit more on the Tour. Maybe then I can start to look for the yellow jersey," 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