Jean-Pierre Drucker of Luxembourg sprinted his way to victory in stage 16 of the Vuelta a Espana with a perfectly timed finish, overtaking Daniele Bennati of Tinkoff and Gianni Meersman of Etixx-QucikStep in the final stretch of the 156.4km flat stage from Alcaniz to Peniscola, Spain.
There was no change at the top in the general classification, with Nairo Quintana maintaining his 3 minutes, 37 second lead over Tour de France champion Chris Froome by finishing with the Briton.
Team Sky’s Froome endured a dismal stage the day before, finishing 2 minutes, 40 seconds behind winner Gianluca Brambilla of Etixx-QuickStep and 2 minutes, 37 seconds down on Movistar’s Quintana, allowing the Colombian to tighten his grip on the red jersey.
Photo: AFP
German pair Rudiger Selig of Katusha and Nikias Arndt of Giant-Alpecin finished second and third respectively, recording the same time as BMC Racing’s Drucker, who claimed his first ever win in a Grand Tour.
“I suffered a lot the last days, but I always kept believing in the sprint stages,” Drucker told reporters. “I did a good Tour of Burgos and I was confident in my sprint. It’s nice. It’s cool to have a victory in a Grand Tour.”
Orica-BikeExchange’s Esteban Chaves stayed third 20 seconds off Froome with five stages remaining.
Froome’s few remaining opportunities to gain some ground on Quintana lie in the two remaining mountain stages today and on Saturday, while his best chance of eating into the Colombian’s lead is in tomorrow’s individual time trial.
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