Spain’s three-time world champion Oscar Freire of Rabobank won the 11th stage of the Tour of Spain on Wednesday, a 178km ride from Calahorra to Burgos, as Egoi Martinez of Euskaltel retained the overall lead.
Martinez leads US racer Levi Leipheimer by 11 seconds and has a 32-second lead over favorite and last year’s Tour de France champion Alberto Contador.
Freire just edged out Belgian Tom Boonen on the line in a sprint battle for the finish on a day when the return of retired seven-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong to the sport was the talk of the peloton.
PHOTO: EPA
Freire, preparing hard for the world championships in Italy later this month, was pleased his form appears to have appeared just at the right time.
“Today was the first day I really felt good and I took advantage of that. Yesterday, I just wasn’t in the groove. It was a good sprint, but I kept on Boonen’s wheel and I proved to be the stronger,” Freire said.
But he added that he believed where the worlds were concerned he would still have to keep a close eye on two-time defending world champion Paolo Bettini, who took the sixth stage in the Vuelta.
“He’ll be a tough one to beat,” the Spaniard said.
Wednesday’s stage was one of transition coming off the mountains with just one third-category climb 40km out from the line, and thus made for the sprinters.
Freire and co attacked the finish with gusto, reigning in early escapees Serafin Martinez, Andriy Grivko and Jose Antonio Lopez Gil, who had earlier established a seven-minute lead after breaking away around the 33km mark.
The news that Armstrong will soon be back in the saddle dominated conversations on the margins of the race and reporters made sure they tracked down Astana manager Belgian Johan Bruyneel, the former director of Armstrong’s US Postal and Discovery Channel teams.
At the finish line Bruyneel repeated comments to Spanish television that he did not see Armstrong riding for another team other than Astana, while expressing doubts as to the veteran’s ability to compete at the top following a three-year absence.
“Contador is currently the best and Armstrong was the best — but after three years’ absence he will have to show he can return to the level of Contador. Three years is a long time,” Bruyneel said.
Olympic road champion Samuel Sanchez, on the other hand, said that Armstrong’s return was “good news for cycling,” and he added he thought the American “is well capable of winning the Tour [de France] again.”
Freire agreed.
“Age is not an impediment — he is a stubborn racer and when he gets it into his head he has the force of personality to do it,” he said of the Texan.
The Major League Baseball World Series trophy is headed to Los Angeles, but the party is extending all the way to Japan. People milled around local train stations yesterday morning in Tokyo as newspaper extras were ready to roll off the presses, proclaiming Japanese stars Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto as world champions along with their Dodgers teammates after a stirring Game 5 victory over the New York Yankees. The 30-year-old is a national hero in Japan whose face adorns billboards and TV adverts all over the country. Ohtani this year became the first player in history to hit 50 home runs and
STAR IN DOUBT: After partially dislocating his shoulder in a feetfirst slide into second base, the status of Japanese slugger Ohtani is uncertain for Game 3 as he undergoes tests Yoshinobu Yamamoto on Saturday walked back to his dugout and made the slightest tip of his cap to cheering fans. He left Japan for moments like this, an opportunity to put the Los Angeles Dodgers in control of the World Series. Yamamoto allowed one hit over 6-1/3 innings and Freddie Freeman homered for the second straight night as Los Angeles beat the New York Yankees 4-2 for a 2-0 Series lead. However, the Dodgers head to New York uncertain whether Shohei Ohtani can play after their biggest star partially dislocated his left shoulder on a slide at second base. “We’re going to get
Three-time reigning world champion Kaori Sakamoto on Saturday led a Japanese podium sweep at Skate Canada, locking up a second straight Canadian women’s title despite two falls in her free skate. Sakamoto, who led 19-year-old American Alysa Liu after the short program, looked a little tight during her jazzy free skate, falling on a Salchow jump and again on a triple flip while fighting to hang on to a few other moves. Her second-best free skate score of 126.24 was enough for gold in the second Grand Prix event of the season in Halifax, Nova Scotia. She finished with 201.21 points, well ahead
Kevin Durant and Devin Booker on Monday combined for 63 points as the Phoenix Suns sent LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers tumbling to their first defeat of the season. Booker bagged 33 points and Durant 30 to give the Suns a thrilling 109-105 win at Phoenix’s Footprint Center, avenging the Lakers’ 123-116 win over the Suns in Los Angeles on Friday last week. The Lakers arrived in Phoenix buoyed by an impressive 3-0 start to the campaign under new head coach J.J. Redick. They looked poised to keep that run going after making a blistering start, sprinting into an early 26-8