Australia’s Michael Matthews won the third stage of the Tour of Utah on Thursday, while Christian Vandevelde retained the overall lead.
Matthews reckoned that a shorter course with fewer climbs compared with what he would face later in the week gave him a decent chance at a stage victory. His goal was simply to survive as long as he could and be in the mix at the finish line.
“I can climb OK, but not if they go really fast up there on long climbs,” Matthews said. “Today, I just wanted to survive and see what I had left for the finish if I was still there.”
Matthews broke away from the pack twice, emerging first from the peloton in the final sprint over the last 10km. He finished the 137.1km stage from Ogden that featured 2.6km of vertical climbs in 3 hours, 24 minutes, 7 seconds. Swiss rider Michael Schar was second, and Brent Bookwalter finished third for the second time in three days.
Vandevelde had a cumulative time of 9:12.23. Thomas Danielson was second and David Zabriskie third — both with the same time as Vandevelde. Fourth-place Peter Stetina was 30 seconds back with three stages remaining.
Matthews and four other riders broke away from the peloton early. Matthews stayed ahead for much of the stage before fading on the final climb. However, Matthews recovered enough to work his way back to the front of the pack.
“We saved a lot of energy by being in the front rather than back in the peloton with their surging and stopping and attacking each other,” Matthews said. “It was a good tactical decision for us.”
Once he had an outside position near the front, Matthews made a charge on the final descent into Salt Lake City and barely beat Schar and Bookwalter across the finish line.
The fourth stage yesterday was a 214.7km leg from Lehi to Energy Solutions Arena in Salt Lake City.
ENECO TOUR
AFP, BRUSSELS
Germany’s Marcel Kittel of the Argos team won Thursday’s fourth stage of the Eneco Tour of the Low Countries, edging Belgium’s Juergen Roelandts and Italy’s Giacomo Nizzolo.
Kittel triumphed after winning a bunched sprint to land his second stage win of the edition following a 213km ride from Heers in Belgium to Bergen-op-Zoom in the Netherlands.
Belgium’s Tom Boonen of Omega Pharma took the leader’s jersey from compatriot Jens Keukeleire of Orica-GreenEdge.
“It was very hard — at 800m from the line, I was still in fifteenth position,” said Kittel, 24. “Then Tom Veelers and John Degenkolb brought me forward. At 500m, I even had a short moment to rest. I don’t know how they exactly did that, but it was fantastic.”
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
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB