Giro d’Italia leader Alberto Contador delivered a second knockout blow to his rivals on Friday after he and stage winner Jose Rujano of Venezuela powered out of the pack on the final climb.
Riding past snowdrifts and through the occasional rainsquall on a pass that rose to more than 2,000m above sea level, Rujano and the Giro leader collaborated to open up a gap of 1 minute, 27 seconds on closest pursuer John Gadret of France.
Then with less than 500m to go, Contador made gestures to the Venezuelan that indicated that he would not contest the stage win and he crossed the line close behind Rujano.
Photo: Reuters
Already the leader since his victory on Mount Etna, Saxo Bank rider Contador now holds a 3 minute, 9 second margin over Italy’s Vincenzo Nibali in the general standings.
Michele Scarponi, also of Italy, is in third.
Despite now leading the overall, as well as the king of the mountains and the points competitions, Contador told reporters the Giro was far from over.
“There are many difficult days ahead and I’m not taking anything for granted,” 2008 champion and three-time Tour de France winner Contador told reporters. “The objective today was to get as much time as possible on my rivals, another stage victory was secondary.”
“These mountain stages are so tough that even if you’ve got a big advantage one day, on the next you can lose 15 minutes,” he added.
Rujano, third in the 2005 Giro, said he and Contador had agreed to work together.
“It’s an honor to race, climb and win with such a great champion as Alberto,” Rujano said. “I’m particularly pleased to get the stage victory after coming so close on Mount Etna [on stage nine], where I had to settle for second because of a mechanical problem.”
“We’d agreed that we’d work together and that [Contador] would let me win the stage,” Rujano added.
Contador, awaiting a Court of Arbitration for Sport verdict over a positive test for clenbuterol during last year’s Tour, said he decided to attack because he saw key overall rival Scarponi had tried to make a move “and I wanted to counter that.”
“When I saw that I was getting a gap, I knew I had to keep going. In any case, this was a very tough stage for everybody and I suffered a lot,” he added.
As the Giro entered the -mountains, several sprinters opted not to start stage 13, including double stage winner Mark Cavendish of the UK and overnight points jersey holder Alessandro Petacchi of Italy.
The next stage sees the Giro peloton tackle a second key day of climbing in the Dolomites, with the ascent of two major cols, the Crostis and the Monte Zoncolan on a 210km route.
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