Belgian veteran Philippe Gilbert on Thursday stamped his authority on the 12th stage of the Vuelta a Espana as Slovenia’s Primoz Roglic retained the leader’s red jersey.
Former world champion Gilbert forged clear of a 15-man breakaway on the steep final category 3 climb to claim his sixth career Vuelta stage in the streets of Bilbao.
The 37-year-old winner of this season’s Paris-Roubaix, who missed out on selection by his team for the Tour de France, came in clear of Spanish duo Alex Aranburu and Fernando Barcelo.
They were the only ones able to give chase to Gilbert, reducing the 19-second gap he had established over the closing 8km to three seconds.
“The atmosphere on the last climb was like at the classics, with all the flags. It was great and boosted my motivation” Gilbert said.
“I’ve often ridden in the Basque country, but I’ve never won here. It’s a first and I’m thrilled as it’s like Flanders here, they love their cycling,” added the Belgian after his 10th Grand Tour stage success.
Gilbert, who is quitting Deuceninck Quick-Step for Lotto-Soudal this winter, appears to be coming to the boil at the right time for this month’s world championships in Yorkshire, England.
Roglic remained 1 minute, 52 seconds ahead of Alejandro Valverde in the general classification ahead of yesterday’s 166.4km stage with seven ascents, including a fearsome final hors categorie climb up Los Machucos.
“I’m not afraid of any stage, especially as I’ve got a very strong team behind me,” said Roglic, who finished with the other main contenders three minutes behind Gilbert. “It’s an honor to wear the red jersey and I’ll be the happiest of men if I’ve still got it in Madrid [on Sept. 15].”
Placed third, 2:11 seconds adrift, was specialist climber Miguel Angel Lopez, who said of yesterday’s stage: “Let’s hope it’s a great day. It’s not all about Los Machucos, there are lots of climbs before then. I’m hoping to have enough strength in the legs to do something good.”
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
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
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier