Belgian team Omega Pharma-Quick-Step won the team time trial title at the world cycling road race championships on Sunday, becoming the first winners of the new event.
The team, led by German individual time trial champion Tony Martin, saw off US rivals BMC by 3 seconds over the 53.2km course.
Helping Martin to victory were Frenchman Sylvain Chavanel, Slovakia’s Peter Velits, Belgian pair Tom Boonen and Kristof Vandewalle, and Dutchman Niki Terpstra.
Photo: AFP
Third place went to Australian outfit Orica GreenEdge — silver medalists in the women’s race earlier — who finished 47 seconds off the pace.
“I put this victory near my biggest, along with the Classics and the road world championship,” Boonen said.
“I didn’t expect to win a race like this, first of all because it never existed before and in the past it wasn’t our discipline. We worked a lot and now we are there. It’s a team victory, even for the staff. It’s really a change of mentality going on,” he said.
Photo: EPA
Martin believes the win was the perfect tonic ahead of the individual time trial tomorrow.
“We fought together as a team,” Martin said. “We maintained a good pace. The team work was once again the key to the success. This victory gives me a lot of morale for Wednesday’s race.”
German team Specialized won the inaugural women’s team time trial.
The victorious team, led by 2008 world time trial champion Amber Neben of the US, completed the 34.2km course between Sittard/Geelen and Valkenburg in a time of 46 minutes, 31 seconds.
Specialized finished 24 seconds ahead of Orica GreenEdge, who boasted the top two finishers in last year’s individual time trial in the form of Germany’s Judith Arndt and Linda Villumsen of New Zealand.
Apart from Neben, 37, Specialized’s lineup also featured another American, Evelyn Stevens, Dutchwoman Ellen Van Dijk and German trio Charlotte Becker, Trixi Worrack and Ina-Yoko Teutenberg.
TOUR OF BRITAIN
AFP, LONDON
British cyclist Jonathan Tiernan-Locke became the first home rider in 19 years to win the Tour of Britain on Sunday.
The 27-year-old started the final stage 18 seconds ahead of Austrian Nathan Haas and 23 seconds in front of Italian Damiano Caruso, and Tiernan-Locke secured victory after finishing in the peloton behind compatriot and world champion Mark Cavendish, who took his third stage win in Guildford, south of London.
British duo Peter Williams and Kristian House won the sprint and king of the mountains jerseys respectively.
“It’s fantastic,” Tiernan-Locke told the BBC. “It has not really sunk in yet. It was a tough day, a lot tougher than we thought. So I feel relief more than anything.”
Cavendish, roared on by thousands of fans, added: “It was my last day in the [world champion’s] rainbow jersey and I wanted to finish it off in style.”
“It was absolutely incredible. The amount of people out on the road has been like the Olympic Games,” he said.
“I thought I’d been forgotten about and everyone was about sideburns now,” he added, in a reference to Team Sky colleague Bradley Wiggins, the Tour de France and Olympic champion.
Shohei Ohtani and his wife arrived in South Korea with his Los Angeles Dodgers teammates yesterday ahead of their season-opening games with the San Diego Padres next week. Ohtani, wearing a black training suit and a cap backwards, was the first Dodgers player who showed up at the arrival gate of Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul. His wife, Mamiko Tanaka, walked several steps behind him. As a crowd of fans, many wearing Dodgers jerseys, shouted his name and cheered slogans, Ohtani briefly waved his hand, but did not say anything before he entered a limousine bus with his wife. Fans held placards
Taiwan’s Tai Tzu-ying yesterday advanced to the quarter-finals at the All England Open, beating Kim Ga-eun of South Korea 21-17, 21-15. With the win, Tai earned a semi-final against China’s He Bingjiao, who beat Michelle Li of Canada 21-9, 21-9. Defending champion An Se-young defeated India’s P.V. Sindhu 21-19, 21-11. An on Wednesday cruised into the second round, unlike last year’s men’s winner, Li Shifeng, who suffered a shock defeat. South Korea’s An, the world No. 1, overcame Taiwan’s Hsu Wen-chi 21-17, 21-16 to set up the match against Sindhu. In other women’s singles matches, Taiwan’s Sung Shuo-yun lost 21-18, 24-22 against Carolina Marin of
EYEING TOP SPOT: A victory in today’s final against Storm Hunter and Katerina Siniakova would return 38-year-old Hsieh Su-wei to the world No. 1 ranking Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens on Thursday secured a spot in the women’s doubles finals at the BNP Paribas Open after dispatching Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US and Australia’s Ellen Perez 6-2, 7-6 (7/5) at Indian Wells. Hsieh and her Belgian partner Mertens, who won the Australian Open in late January, coasted through the first set after breaking their opponents’ serve twice, but found the going tougher in the second. Both pairs could only muster one break point over 12 games, neither of which were converted, leaving the set to be decided by a tiebreaker. Hsieh and Mertens took a 6-3 lead,
DOUBLES PAYBACK: Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Martens avenged their defeat in the quarters at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open against Demi Schuurs and Luisa Stefani Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei on Wednesday advanced to the semi-finals of the women’s doubles at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, California. Hsieh and partner Elise Mertens of Belgium dispatched Demi Schuurs and Luisa Stefani 6-1, 6-4 to set up a clash against Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US and Australia’s Ellen Perez for a spot in the final of the WTA 1000 tournament. Hsieh and Martens made a blistering start to their rematch after they lost to Schuurs and Stefani in the quarter-finals at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open last month, winning three games without reply at the start of the first set