A daring ambush through rugged terrain by Spain’s Joaquim Rodriguez on stage five of the Tour of the Basque Country garnered the Katusha rider a victory that propelled him into third place overall on Friday.
Fellow Spaniard Alejandro Valverde still leads with a one second advantage over American Chris Horner followed by Rodriguez at 34 seconds.
Rodriguez staged a surprise lone attack as the favorites were preparing to tackle the main challenge of the day, the short but painfully steep Alto de Aia-Fronton climb.
PHOTO: EPA
Already the outright winner of the Tour of Catalunya two weeks ago, the 30-year-old Spaniard then soloed to his third victory of the season with a 14-second advantage over compatriot Samuel Sanchez. Valverde was third.
“I went for a long-range attack because I thought that way I’d catch everybody out,” Rodriguez told reporters. “I’d lost time in yesterday’s stage because I didn’t feel good for no real reason and I wasn’t happy about it.”
“I wracked my brains about how best to put it right and I was still feeling pretty gloomy before today’s stage started,” he said. “Getting a better position overall wasn’t the day’s big objective, all I wanted was to reach the line first and be able to put my hands in the air.”
Race leader and Caisse D’Epargne rider Valverde said his former teammate’s strategy was exceptionally well planned.
“You can never rule Joaquim out of the fight, he had one card to play and he played it well,” Valverde said. “Fortunately we managed to pull him back, but it was a very dangerous move.”
On a tough 170km stage featuring a succession of narrow, twisting lanes and punchy, steep climbs, 13 riders gave up while others were forced to dismount on the 26 percent (1 in 4) slopes of the daunting Alto de Aia-Fronton ascent.
Spaniard Amets Txurruka crashed while leading when his bike span out of control on a fast downhill section and he suffered a suspected broken collarbone.
Leading in the King of the Mountains competition, Txurruka completed the stage 36 minutes, 20 seconds behind Rodriguez. Teammate Alan Perez stood in for the injured Euskaltel-Euskadi rider in the post-race ceremonies.
With eight riders clustered at a minute or less overall behind leader Valverde, yesterday’s final 22km individual time trial in Orio will decide the race’s overall winner.
“It’s an extremely technical course and there will be some big time gaps,” said Valverde. “Whoever wins won’t have it easy.”
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
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but