Boasson Hagen of Norway, riding for Columbia, won the seventh stage of the Giro d’Italia on Friday at Chiavenna, with LPR’s Danilo Di Luca retaining the leader’s pink jersey.
Hagen emerged the winner from a five-man late escape over the final 20km launched coming off the Passo Maloja climb to win the 244km rain-hit stage from Innsbruck as the race came back over the border from Austria.
The win, his first in Italy, was an early birthday present for the Norwegian, who turns 22 today.
PHOTO: AFP
South African Robert Hunter came in second ahead of Russian Pavel Brutt, with Italians Davide Vigano and Alessandro Bertolini completing the top five on the day.
Already the winner of the Ghent-Wevelgem Classic this spring at the age of just 21, Hagen said: “Both victories, in Belgium and here in Italy, are very important and you can’t really compare them.”
“I’m just really happy to be winning,” he said. “I had great support from the team because I knew they were blocking behind when the break went clear. I didn’t start the final sprint too early, I tried waiting for as long as possible for the other guys to go. But I felt strong and it worked out well. It was dangerous on that last descent in the rain. I was lucky that I didn’t crash.”
Bertolini had made a break going into the final handful of kilometers and established a one-minute lead on the nerve-wracking descent toward Chiavenna — but he was reined in before Hagen just stole it ahead of Brutt.
Four riders made an early move just outside Innsbruck as Mauro Facci, Bartosz Huzarski, Serguei Klimov and Vladimir Isaichev raced nine minutes clear by the 24km mark and they held on until the final climb as the rain made the conditions increasingly slippery.
Bertolini tried to anticipate the sprint in vain as Brutt and Hagen jockeyed for supremacy over the final dozen kilometers and made for the line.
Winner of last month’s Gand-Wevelge race, Hagen scored his first Giro stage success just 24 hours after he placed second behind Michele Scarponi in the sixth stage to Mayrhofen im Zillertal, Austria.
Meanwhile, Lance Armstrong’s Astana team admitted on Friday they have been forced into desperate measures in a bid to publicize a never-ending financial dispute with their key sponsors.
Seven-time Tour de France winner Armstrong and his Astana teammates started the Giro’s seventh stage with new shirts and the name of key sponsor, Astana, virtually blocked out.
Currently one of the most successful teams in the peloton, Astana face an uncertain future following reports their Kazakh sponsors have failed to pay team wages several times this year.
On Friday, Armstrong finished 58 seconds behind Hagen and now stands 25th overall, 4 minutes, 31 seconds off the lead.
A seven-year-old horse had to be euthanized on Friday after breaking its back on the final fence of a Grand National steeplechase race that it won despite sustaining the serious injury. It follows the death of four horses at the Cheltenham Festival last month — including one after the prestigious Gold Cup. Gold Dancer was competing in the Mildmay Novices’ Chase during Ladies Day at Aintree’s Grand National Festival. The horse managed to cross the finish line approximately four lengths ahead of runner-up Regent’s Stroll. “The winner of our second race of the day, Gold Dancer, was pulled up after
Hans Niemann declares he would become a “stone cold killer” in a Netflix documentary released on Tuesday about his feud with five-time classical world champion Magnus Carlsen, a pledge that injects new edge into the lingering fallout from the cheating scandal that shook elite chess. “I’m gonna be a stone cold killer the rest of my life,” the US’ Niemann says in the film. “I’m going to become the best player in the world, and no one is going to believe that now, but this clip will play over and over again in 10 years — just wait.” “I just
The Daredevils yesterday took eight catches in the final as they eked out a victory in the Taiwan Cricket Triangular Tournament against PCCT at Yingfeng Cricket Ground in Taipei’s Songshan District. PCCT’s batting lineup collapsed after they asked the Daredevils to bowl in the T20 decider of the weekend tournament that also involved the Formosa Cricket Club. PCCT were bundled out for 76 in 16.2 overs against a disciplined Daredevils attack. Shahzad Khan was the top scorer in the innings with 21, but he was among those who offered chances to the fielders. Shane Ferreira and Jason Cameron took three wickets each, with
OBJECTIVE REACHED: ’Now for us, it’s about getting healthy, making sure everybody is ready to go, and we can ramp up,’ the Atlanta Hawks’ C.J. McCollum said after the game The Atlanta Hawks on Friday secured an NBA playoff berth with a 124-102 victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers as the Boston Celtics locked up the Eastern Conference second seed with a lopsided win of their own. C.J. McCollum scored a game-high 29 points for the Hawks, who came into the contest at sixth in the East and still in danger of falling into the play-in tournament that would see the seventh-through 10th-placed teams battle for the last two playoff berths in each conference. Nickeil Alexander-Walker and Jalen Johnson scored 18 points apiece, and Dyson Daniels added a triple-double of 13
RSS