Peter Sagan of Slovakia won the third stage of the Tour de Suisse on Monday, as Germany’s Tony Martin retained the leader’s yellow jersey.
Sagan, riding for Cannondale Pro Cycling, crossed the line first in a sprint finish at the end of the 202.9km stage from Sarnen to Heiden, Switzerland, ahead of Switzerland’s Michael Albasini of Orica-GrennEdge and Colombia’s Sergio Henao of Sky Pro Cycling.
Australia’s 2011 Tour de France winner Cadel Evans of BMC Racing and Portugal’s two-time defending champion Rui Costa of Lampre-Merida, came home fifth and seventh respectively as part of an 11-man group that gained five seconds on a peloton which included Martin.
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Luxembourg’s Frank Schleck of Trek Factory Racing, the older brother of 2010 Tour de France champion Andy, failed to make the start line on Monday after crashing badly during Sunday’s stage and suffering serious concussion.
Britain’s Bradley Wiggins of Sky, the 2012 Tour de France champion, had a day to forget as he could only muster 74th spot on the stage, 2 minutes, 25 seconds slower than Sagan and his main rivals for the overall title.
Sky have yet to confirm whether Wiggins will ride this year’s Tour with defending champion Chris Froome of Britain expected to lead the team.
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Kenyan-born Froome suffered a painful crash in last Friday’s sixth stage of the Criterium du Dauphine and although he reached the finish line on Sunday, he was obviously feeling the effects of his injuries, slumping to 12th place overall.
Garmin-Sharp’s Andrew Talansky of the US won the Dauphine, 27 seconds ahead of Spaniard Alberto Contador of Tinkoff-Saxo.
Yesterday’s fourth stage of the Tour de Suisse was a 160km ride from Heiden to Ossingen and featured two minor category four climbs, the second of which peaked 15km from the finish line.
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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
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
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier