Spaniard Alejandro Valverde on Tuesday claimed victory on the fourth stage of Spain’s Vuelta a Espana as Slovakia’s Peter Sagan again had to settle for second place.
Sagan on Monday won his first Grand Tour stage for two years after finishing second five times at the Tour de France last month, but could not match Valverde’s pace up a short, steep climb to the finish of the 209.6km ride from Estepona to Vejer de la Frontera.
Spain’s Dani Moreno finished third.
Esteban Chaves of Colombia retains his overall lead by five seconds from Dutchman Tom Dumoulin, with Ireland’s Nicholas Roche a further 10 seconds back.
However, Valverde moves into fifth overall and leads Movistar teammate Nairo Quintana and Britain’s Chris Froome by eight and 12 seconds respectively in the battle among the favorites to win the three-week tour.
Froome is aiming to become just the third man in history to win the Tour de France and the Vuelta in the same year.
“Looking at the profile of the stage on the Internet, we saw that the final climb was very demanding and could be a good one for me,” Valverde said. “Clearly the stage victory is the most important thing. The time gained in the general classification is an added bonus, but there is still a long way to go. Today I won, but Nairo was very attentive to what was going on around me and we will continue to work together.”
Valverde timed his finish to perfection, jumping ahead of Sagan to claim not only the stage victory, but 10 bonus seconds to aid his chances of a second overall Vuelta win.
The race was to continue yesterday with a 167.3km ride from Rota to Alcala de Guadaira.
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
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
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