Peter Sagan sprinted through the rain to win the penultimate stage of the Tirreno-Adriatico on Monday, while Nairo Quintana retained the overall lead heading into the final day.
Sagan won a mass sprint to complete the victory in 5 hours, 4 minutes, 14 seconds in difficult conditions over the 210km route from Rieti to Porto Sant’Elpidio, the sixth stage of the race across central Italy.
The Slovak sprint specialist pumped his fists in the air as he crossed the line ahead of Gerald Ciolek and Jens Debusschere for his first victory for Tinkoff-Saxo, after two second-place finishes in this year’s Tirreno and 15 runner-up spots overall this season.
Photo: EPA
“Finishing second so often was bad because I wanted to win,” Sagan said. “I honestly don’t know how many second places I got. So many. It could have been a load of first places.”
“But it’s all an experience, life is like that too, sometimes you are up and sometimes you are down.” he added.
Quintana, who was runner-up last year, tops the overall standings, retaining a 39-second advantage over Bauke Mollema and a 48-second lead over Rigoberto Uran.
Yesterday’s final stage was a 10km individual time trial around San Benedetto del Tronto.
“I expected my rivals to try to do something on a day with such difficult conditions, but it went exactly as I wanted,” Quintana said.
Sunday’s stage was a tough one, with snow falling heavily on the difficult climb to Terminillo. There were several withdrawals before the start of Monday’s stage and several more during the route as the rain continued to lash down on the riders, who also had to endure low temperatures.
Alessandro Vanotti, Stijn Devolder and Yukiya Arashiro broke clear after 15km and had a lead of nearly six minutes before the peloton started to reel them in.
The Tinkoff-Saxo team, who were riding for Sagan’s bid for a stage win and Alberto Contador’s faint hopes of retaining his Tirreno title, upped the pace on the ascent up to Montelparo — the sole categorized climb of the day — and cut the gap to 1 minute, 34 seconds.
The three leaders were caught with 51km remaining before Vanotti broke again and established a lead of 25 seconds as he approached Porto Sant’Elipidio before the two final laps of 14.4km.
Alexis Vuillermoz left the peloton and bridged the gap to Vanotti, with the two building a lead of 30 seconds. The Frenchman then left Vanotti alone, but was reeled in with 3.2km to go as the teams set up their riders for the sprint finish.
Sagan opened his sprint at the same time as Ciolek and quickly opened up a lead of a bike length over the German cyclist.
OUT AGAINST INDONESIA: Taiwan reached the semi-finals at the tournament for the first time by defeating Denmark, with Chou Tien-chen beating Viktor Axelsen Taiwan yesterday crashed out of the Thomas Cup team competition in Chengdu, China, but achieved their best result at the top-tier badminton event by reaching the semi-finals. Indonesia were too good in the semis, winning 3-0 to advance to today’s final against China, who eliminated Malaysia 3-1. In the opening singles of the men’s team clash at the Hi-Tech Zone Sports Center Gymnasium 2, Anthony Ginting defeated Taiwan’s Chou Tien-chen 21-18, 21-19 in 51 minutes, which put a huge hole in Taiwan’s aspirations to perhaps even make the final. In the men’s doubles, Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Ardianto downed Lee Yang and Wang
NO DOUBT: Spurs star Wembanyama was unanimously selected as NBA Rookie of the Year, winning all 99 votes to become the first Frenchman to capture the honor The Minnesota Timberwolves on Monday night produced a dominant defensive display to seize a commanding 2-0 lead in their best-of-seven playoff series against the Denver Nuggets with a 106-80 road victory. The third-seeded Timberwolves harassed Denver relentlessly to claim a second straight win over the NBA champions as the series heads back to Minneapolis for Game 3 on Friday. Karl-Anthony Towns and Anthony Edwards scored 27 points apiece, but the star of the show was Minnesota’s suffocating defensive effort, which knocked Denver out of their stride almost from the tip-off. The Timberwolves finished with 11 steals and 12 blocks, in sharp contrast to
Top-ranked Iga Swiatek on Saturday came through “the most intense and crazy final” she has ever contested to avenge her loss to Aryna Sabalenka in last year’s Madrid Open final with a grueling three hour, 11 minute victory in the Spanish capital. Coming back from 1-3 down in the decider and saving three match points in total, Swiatek claimed a 7-5, 4-6, 7-6 (9/7) victory to secure the Madrid Open trophy for the first time. “Well, who is going to say now that women’s tennis is boring, right?” Swiatek said. Swiatek, who picked up the 20th title of her career, and ninth at
One of Malaysia’s top soccer clubs has pulled out of today’s season-opening Charity Shield after a spate of assaults, including an acid attack, on players in the country. It leaves the kickoff of Malaysia’s season this weekend under a cloud following the unprecedented acts of violence against players, which have left the country shocked and angry. Authorities said they have imposed tighter security, but Selangor said that they would not play in the showpiece curtain-raiser against Malaysian Super League champions Johor Darul Ta’zim (JDT) citing “a series of criminal incidents and recent threats.” Selangor and Malaysia winger Faisal Halim is in intensive care