Spain's Igor Anton pulled on the leader's yellow jersey after climbing to victory in Sunday's second stage of the Tour of Switzerland to the ski station of Flumserberg.
The Euskaltel rider crossed the line six seconds ahead of Luxembourg’s Kim Kirchen of High Road, Italy’s Damiano Cunego and CSC’s Frank Schleck following the 197km run that finished in rain and freezing conditions at 1,400m altitude.
Anton stuck with the favorites on the tough 10km final climb, pulling ahead on the steep final slope with an 18 percent gradient.
PHOTO: AFP
Germany’s Jens Voigt tried to break away preparing the way for an attack by Luxembourg’s Schleck some 4km from the line.
But Schleck could not maintain the pace, allowing Switzerland’s Oliver Zaugg to break through before Spanish climber Anton snuck through ahead of the favorites.
■ DAUPHINE LIBERE
AP, GRENOBLE, FRANCE
Alejandro Valverde won the Dauphine Libere cycling race on Sunday, putting the Spanish rider among the favorites for next month’s Tour de France.
Kazakh rider Dmitriy Fofonov won the seventh and final stage — a 128km ride from Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne to Grenoble that featured three big climbs and a downhill finish.
Valverde, of Caisse d’Epargne, again demonstrated his strong form two months after winning the Liege-Bastogne-Liege.
Valverde finished with a total time of 27 hours, 39 minutes, edging Australia’s Cadel Evans by 39 seconds. Levi Leipheimer of the US was third, 1 minute, 24 seconds back.
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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
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