World champion Oscar Freire captured the third stage of the Tirreno-Adriatico cycling race on Friday for his second victory in 24 hours.
Freire beat France's Laurent Brochard and Germany's Danilo Hondo at the finish in this central Italian town, a replay of Thursday's second-stage sprint.
The 29-year-old Spaniard of the Rabobank team, finished the 228km from Tivoli to Torricella Sicura in five hours, 52 minutes, 7 seconds, retaining the overall leader's yellow-and-red jersey and boosting his overall advantage with a time bonus.
PHOTO: AFP
Freire improved his overall lead to 11 seconds ahead of Alessandro Petacchi and 13 ahead of Brochard by 13.
Freire, the defending champion of the Milan-to-San Remo classic on March 19, surprisingly rallied on the final uphill section.
"I nearly fell 1km from the finish and I lost several positions. Luckily I had time to recover," Freire told television interviewers.
"I feel very good. I'm in good form and everything comes easy to me. Of course I hope to win the San Remo but the opposition will be tough," he added.
He named Italy's top sprinter Petacchi, winner of the opening stage of Tirreno-Adriatico and eighth Friday, as his closest challenger along with World Cup champion Paolo Bettini and Belgium's Tom Boonen. George Hincapie of the US placed sixth in the stage and moved to 10th overall, 23 seconds behind.
The seven-stage Tirreno-Adriatico, the first Italian race of the ProTour series, ends in San Benedetto del Tronto on Tuesday after crossing from the Thyrrenian to the Adriatic coast.
Italy's Gilberto Simoni won Friday's fifth stage of the Paris-Nice cycling race, while American Bobby Julich took the overall lead.
Simoni, a Lampre team rider and two-time winner of the Giro d'Italia, finished the 172.5km in 4 hours, 7 minutes, 26 seconds.
Robinson Cano spent 17 seasons playing in the MLB in front of all kinds of baseball fans, but he said there is something special about his stint with the Mexican Baseball League’s Diablos Rojos. He is not alone. The league last week opened its 100th season, aiming to keep an impressive growth in attendance that began after the national team’s surprise run at the 2023 World Baseball Classic, and is already surpassing some first-division soccer clubs. After finishing third in the 2023 tournament, many casual fans, some of them soccer enthusiasts disappointed after Mexico were eliminated in the first round in the 2022
Noelvi Marte on Sunday had seven RBIs and hit his first career grand slam with a drive off infielder Jorge Mateo, while Austin Wynn had a career-high six RBIs as the Cincinnati Reds scored their most runs in 26 years in a 24-2 rout of the Baltimore Orioles. Marte finished with five hits, including his eighth-inning homer off Mateo. Wynn hit a three-run homer in the ninth off catcher Gary Sanchez. Cincinnati scored its most runs since a 24-12 win against the Colorado Rockies on May 19, 1999, and finished with 25 hits. Baltimore allowed its most runs since a 30-3 loss to
Arne Slot has denied that Darwin Nunez was dropped from Liverpool’s win against West Ham because of a training-ground row with a member of his coaching staff. The Liverpool head coach on Sunday last week said that Nunez was absent from the 2-1 victory at Anfield, having felt unwell during training the day before, although the striker sat behind the substitutes throughout the game. Speculation has been rife that the Uruguay international, whom Slot criticized for his work rate against Wolves and Aston Villa in February, was left out for disciplinary reasons. Asked on Friday to clarify the situation, Slot said: “He
In-form teenager Mirra Andreeva on Thursday crashed out of the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart, Germany, after going down in straight sets to fellow Russian Ekaterina Alexandrova in the last 16. World No. 7 Andreeva, who already has two titles under her belt this season, lost 6-3, 6-2 against the 22nd-ranked Alexandrova in just over an hour. The 17-year-old Andreeva had defeated her elder sister Erika in the previous round on Wednesday, but Alexandrova quickly took control as she claimed her fourth win over a top-10 player this season. The 17-year-old Mirra Andreeva in February became the youngest winner of a WTA
RSS