Nicolas Roche became Ireland’s first Vuelta a Espana leader for 25 years on Saturday when he ousted Vincenzo Nibali from top spot in the toughest stage in the mountains this year to date.
The son of Ireland’s only Tour de France winner, Stephen Roche, ended up third behind eighth stage winner Leopold Koenig of the Czech Republic and Spain’s Dani Moreno on the 14km Alto de Penas Blancas summit finish.
The Saxo-Tinkoff rider now leads the general classification by 17 seconds from RadioShack Leopard Trek’s Chris Horner of the US. Katusha’s Moreno is third, while Italian Nibali of Astana, 16th in the 158.6km stage from Jerez de la Frontera, occupies fourth position.
Photo: AFP
“I benefited from a bit of an opening when things stalled in the main pack behind Koenig,” said Roche, Ireland’s first leader since Sean Kelly won the race in 1988. “I was only eight seconds behind Nibali before the stage and I’ve never led a Grand Tour before, so I wanted to go all out and give it absolutely everything.”
“Right now, I’m the happiest man on Earth, it’s been an incredible week for me,” added Roche, who won his first Grand Tour stage on the Vuelta’s first summit finish the previous Sunday and also leads the King of the Mountains competition.
With two summit finishes looming yesterday and today, the 29-year-old was cautious about his prospects of remaining in top spot.
Photo: AFP
“It would be pretty optimistic to say I can hold this lead all the way to Madrid,” said Roche, whose best Grand Tour finish is seventh in the 2010 Vuelta. “Monday is one of the hardest stages of the entire race and if I can get through these three days in the lead that would be great.”
Stage winner Koenig’s small-scale Team NetApp Endura are one of four non-World Tour squads to benefit from an invite to the Vuelta.
“This climb suited me down to the ground, its steeper segments were all in the early part. Once I got through that with the favorites I thought my chances were pretty good,” the Czech rider said. “I saw [earlier attacker Igor] Anton was suffering and managed to catch him just before the line. I’ll try for the overall lead now, but anything I get from here on is a bonus for me and the team.”
The Vuelta a Espana’s second straight mountain-top finish yesterday was a long climb with lung-burstingly steep segments of up to 25 percent in the sierras of northern Andalusia.
The race ends in Madrid on Sept. 15.
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