Luxembourg’s Frank Schleck took hold of the Tour de France yellow jersey from Cadel Evans on Sunday after a thrilling 15th stage in the Alps that blew the race wide open.
Australian Simon Gerrans of the Credit Agricole team claimed his maiden win on the race — and the biggest of his career — at the end of the 183km stage from Embrun to Prato Nevoso in Italy.
However, the big battle on the first of three days in the Alps was going on in Gerrans’ wake and it has resulted in what is the most open Tour in years.
PHOTO: AP
Five riders finished the day within a minute of Schleck, meaning there should be guaranteed drama when the Tour recommences today following yesterday’s rest day.
Schleck, the Luxembourg champion, had been almost guaranteed taking the yellow jersey having started just a second behind Evans and being bolstered by a strong CSC team that the Aussie was always going to struggle to outfox.
With his younger brother Andy and co-team leader Carlos Sastre helping Schleck, Evans was left on his own when Yaroslav Popovych ran out of juice early on the final, 11.1km climb.
PHOTO: EPA
Evans did well to limit his losses, but came over the finish line 9 seconds behind Schleck, leaving the Luxembourger with a 7 second lead on Austrian Bernhard Kohl.
Evans is now third, 8 minutes, 30 seconds ahead of Russian rival Denis Menchov, who has a 1 second advantage on American Christian Vande Velde. Sastre, Schleck’s teammate, remains in sixth, but has reduced his deficit to just 49 seconds.
Schleck admitted it was the hard pace-setting work of brother Andy, followed by some tactical accelerations from Sastre, that helped put Evans and their other rivals into the red.
“It was a very hard last climb, really fast and it was thanks mostly to my brother Andy. His pace put everyone into the red,” Schleck said. “Carlos attacked at the start, then Andy set the tempo and then Carlos attacked again. The end result is that Carlos has got back into the yellow jersey race and now I’ve got the yellow jersey. That was the goal this morning and it shows we can do well on all sorts of terrain, on the flat, in the rain and on the climbs. I think it’s superb what we did today.”
Menchov, who has been consistently described as a major favorite, provided one of the major incidents of the day when he came skidding down on a bend on the final climb after launching an attack around 4km from the finish.
Menchov got back on his bike to rejoin Sastre and rebounded in spectacular fashion by finishing 18 seconds ahead of Schleck.
The Russian’s manager, Erik Breukink, played down the effects of his Rabobank team leader’s setback.
“That is bad luck, but after that he was okay,” Breukink said. “He tried to do everything afterward, but it always costs you some strength. He lost a bit of time to Sastre, that’s a pity.”
Menchov was not the only rider to crash.
Spaniard Oscar Pereiro, the 2006 champion, ended up in hospital after a dramatic fall which left him with shoulder injuries.
Britain’s David Millar and Vande Velde also came crashing down as the peloton rode around both sides of a roundabout prior to approaching the final climb.
Vande Velde, however, recovered to stay well in contention with the favorites.
“Christian is amazing me more and more every day,” said Millar, who admitted it was amazing he escaped with no injuries. “I hope to feel better in the coming days, but we’re ready to give every single last drop of energy to help Christian.”
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
HSIEH MAKES QUARTERS: Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens of Belgium won in the women’s doubles and face Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Sofia Kenin of the US Top-ranked Iga Swiatek and US Open champion Coco Gauff were knocked out of the women’s singles at the Miami Open on Monday, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced in the women’s doubles. Swiatek lost to Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-4, 6-2, hours after third seed Gauff fell in three sets to No. 23 Caroline Garcia 6-3, 1-6, 6-2. Alexandrova beat a top-ranked player for the first time and advanced to face Jessica Pegula, a 7-6 (7/1), 6-3 winner over Emma Navarro, in the quarter-finals. Alexandrova recorded her second win over Swiatek, following a 2021 victory in Melbourne. Swiatek had won their three matches since. “We played quite