Argentine Maximiliano Richeze led a South American one-two ahead of race leader Peter Sagan on the fourth stage of the Tour de Suisse on Tuesday.
It was also an Etixx Quick-Step one-two as Richeze crossed the line ahead of Colombian teammate Fernando Gaviria with Slovak Sagan finishing third following the 193km run from Rheinfelden to Champagne.
Having won the two previous stages, world champion Sagan missed out on a hat-trick after clipping the wheel of Sky’s Danny van Poppel on a tight right-hand bend just before the line.
Van Poppel showed great bike control to stay upright as he wobbled all over the road while Sagan momentarily lost momentum and was unable to overhaul the Etixx pair in front of him.
The Tinkoff rider did increase his overall lead, though, thanks to picking up four bonus seconds on the line, while the rest of the peloton also finished two seconds back from the leading trio.
Belgian Jurgen Roelandts finished ninth on the stage and dropped to nine seconds behind Sagan, while Silvan Dillier, another Belgian, is third overall at the same time gap.
Briton Geraint Thomas was the highest-placed of the overall contenders at 10th, 25 seconds behind the leader.
Bayer 04 Leverkusen go into today’s match at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim stung from their first league defeat in 16 months. Leverkusen were beaten 3-2 at home by RB Leipzig before the international break, the first loss since May last year for the reigning league and cup champions. While any defeat, particularly against a likely title rival, would have disappointed coach Xabi Alonso, the way in which it happened would be most concerning. Just as they did in the Supercup against VfB Stuttgart and in the league opener to Borussia Moenchengladbach, Leverkusen scored first, but were pegged back. However, while Leverkusen rallied late to
If all goes well when the biggest marathon field ever gathered in Australia races 42km through the streets of Sydney on Sunday, World Marathon Majors (WMM) will soon add a seventh race to the elite series. The Sydney Marathon is to become the first race since Tokyo in 2013 to join long-established majors in New York, London, Boston, Berlin and Chicago if it passes the WMM assessment criteria for the second straight year. “We’re really excited for Sunday to arrive,” race director Wayne Larden told a news conference in Sydney yesterday. “We’re prepared, we’re ready. All of our plans look good on
The lights dimmed and the crowd hushed as Karoline Kristensen entered for her performance. However, this was no ordinary Dutch theater: The temperature was 80°C and the audience naked apart from a towel. Dressed in a swimsuit and to the tune of emotional music, the 21-year-old Kristensen started her routine, performed inside a large sauna, with a bed of hot rocks in the middle. For a week this month, a group of wellness practitioners, called “sauna masters,” are gathering at a picturesque health resort in the Netherlands to compete in this year’s Aufguss world sauna championships. The practice takes its name from a
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