World champion Peter Sagan on Sunday cleverly clinched a bunch sprint to win the Gent-Wevelgem, attacking early when his main rival Elia Viviani was boxed in.
With the peloton whittled down to 25 riders, four of them from Quick-Step Floors, the Bora-Hansgrohe man timed his attack to perfection with 200m of the 251km race remaining, and only Frenchman Arnaud Demare could go with him until Viviani got free and launched a desperate, but thrilling late attack.
The Belgian outfit had banked on their Italian sprint specialist after their four riders failed to drop the other pretenders over the final few kilometers.
Photo: AFP
Viviani certainly proved he had the speed, flying past Demare, but it was too late to catch Sagan, who maintained his own powerful burst for the line.
“It was a complicated sprint, it’s always a bit of a lottery,” 28-year-old Sagan told reporters. “I started early and in the end it was good. I had the legs to hold the lead.”
Viviani was so distraught at fluffing his lines in a region where his team have their headquarters he sat down and cried in frustration, while third-placed Demare is showing the form of his life after coming second at Milan-San Remo the previous weekend.
It was a record-equaling third Gent-Wevelgem win for Sagan, who joins five other men including Eddy Merckx and Mario Cipollini in achieving the feat, after previous victories in 2013 and 2016.
“This was easy because of the lack of wind, nothing crazy like three years ago. It was a very fast race,” Sagan told a reporter. “There wasn’t much wind so there was a big group of us, otherwise the group would have been smaller.”
Sagan also suggested the steep cobbled climb of the Kemmelberg hill, where John Degenkolb and Alexander Kristoff got left behind, had suited him.
“The hill was OK for me, I felt fine,” said Sagan, whose form had been questioned after the E3 Harelbeke on Friday, where he looked less sharp.
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
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
Japanese players are moving to English soccer in record numbers and more look set to follow with clubs attracted by their quality, strong work ethic and value for money. Kaoru Mitoma is the standout talent of five Japanese players in the English Premier League, with eight more in the Championship and two in League One. Liverpool midfielder Wataru Endo, the captain of Japan, believes his compatriots are “being held in higher esteem” by English clubs compared with the past. “The staff at Liverpool ask me about lots of Japanese players, not necessarily with a view to a transfer, but just saying this or
Taiwan yesterday survived Bosnia and Herzegovina to win their Davis Cup World Group I tie at the Taipei Tennis Center. The tight series started on Saturday with world No. 123 Jason Tseng losing 3-6, 7-5, 6-4 to Mirza Basic in the opening singles matchup. However, teammate Tony Wu kept the tie even, dominating world No. 86 Damir Dzumhur 6-2, 6-1. Yesterday, 24-year-old Ray Ho and partner 25-year-old Hsu Yu-hsiou kept up the momentum, making short work of Basic and Nerman Fatic, winning 6-3, 6-4. Tseng then suffered another defeat, losing 6-4, 2-6, 6-2 to Dzumhur in a brutal match that lasted more than two