German rider Marcus Burghardt of the BMC team collected his second win of the Tour of Switzerland when he won the seventh stage between Savognin and Wetzikon on Friday.
Burghardt, who took the fifth stage on Wednesday, finished on his own some 55 seconds ahead of Oscar Freire, Greg van Avermaet and Manuel Quinziato, three of 15 riders who took off in a morning breakaway.
Dutchman Robert Gesink of Rabobank, who finished in the peloton five minutes behind, keeps the leader’s yellow jersey. He is 29 seconds ahead of Spaniard Rigoberto Uran and 36 seconds in front of the Switzerland’s Steve Morabito.
PHOTO: EPA
Burghardt, a stage winner in the Tour de France two years ago, was part of a group that broke away 62km into the race.
In the wind and rain they made good progress over the next 80km, opening up a five-minute lead over the peloton, before Burghardt broke decisively for home 60km from the finish.
“It wasn’t my idea to attack from so far out,” he said. “I tried to move things along a bit, but nobody reacted and suddenly I found myself out in front on my own.”
The chasing group chased him hard and Burghardt, who has lived in Switzerland for the last three years, admitted that he “suffered a lot in the last few kilometers,” but he kept up the pace and crossed the line waving a German flag that he had taken from a spectator.
Spain’s Freire of Rabobank came in second, just over a minute behind the German. Belgium’s Van Avermaet of Omega Pharma-Lotto finished in third place.
“At the start it was hard work because there was a lot of movement,” said Gesink, who maintained his position atop the general classification. “Once the front group had escaped, it was pretty quiet because we could control the race. At the start the weather was quite nice, but then a lot of people were complaining about how cold it was, but my teammates weren’t cold because they were working.”
Uran of Caisse d’Espagne and Morabito of BMC are the closest to Gesink, but the Dutchman said American Lance Armstrong of RadioShack, 55 seconds back in seventh, is the biggest threat to the yellow jersey.
“Armstrong is the most dangerous, but before the time-trial there is a stage tomorrow with 2,500m difference in altitude. So first I must defend the yellow jersey,” he said.
Armstrong, in his last race before launching his effort to snatch an eighth Tour de France title, was content with his performance.
“I am feeling good, even if there was rain and it was cold,” the 38-year-old said.
The eighth stage sees the peloton travel the 172km between Wetzikon and Liestal. It ends with a time-trial on Sunday.
SS Lazio on Monday fired the far-right sympathizer who handles their eagle mascot after he posted online a series of videos and pictures of his erect penis. Falconer Juan Bernabe, who has been present at Lazio home matches with Olimpia the eagle since the 2010-2011 season, posted the footage on social media after having surgery on Saturday to implant a penile prosthesis to improve his sexual performance. Lazio said that they had “terminated, with immediate effect” their relationship with Bernabe “due to the seriousness of his conduct,” adding that they were “shocked” by the images. The Serie A club added that Bernabe’s dismissal
The NHL postponed the Los Angeles Kings’ home game against the Calgary Flames on Wednesday with several massive wildfires burning across the greater Los Angeles area. The Kings and Flames were scheduled to play on Wednesday night at the Kings’ downtown arena. The NBA’s Los Angeles Lakers were scheduled to host the Charlotte Hornets in the same arena last night. “Our hearts are with our entire Los Angeles community,” the Kings said in a statement. “We appreciate the hard working first responders who are diligently working to contain the fire and protect our community. We appreciate the league’s support in keeping our
Doping fears prevented former US Open champion Emma Raducanu from treating insect bites on the eve of the Australian Open, she said, with players increasingly wary about ingesting contaminated substances. The British player was speaking in the wake of high-profile doping cases involving Iga Swiatak and Jannik Sinner. “I would say all of us are probably quite sensitive to what we take on board, what we use,” the 22-year-old said, recalling an incident on Friday. “I got really badly bitten by, I don’t know what, like ants, mosquitoes, something. I’m allergic, I guess,” she added. The bites “flared up and swelled up really a
TWO IN A WEEK: Despite an undefeated start to the year playing alongside Jiang Xinyu of China, Wu Fang-hsien is to play the Australian Open with a Russian partner Taiwan’s Wu Fang-hsien yesterday triumphed at the Hobart International, winning the women’s doubles title at the US$275,094 outdoor hard-court tournament, while McCartney Kessler lifted the trophy in the women’s singles. Fourth-ranked Wu and partner Jiang Xinyu of China took 1 hour, 15 minutes to defeat Romania’s Monica Niculescu and Fanny Stollar of Hungary, 6-1, 7-6 (8/6) at the Hobart International Tennis Centre, their second title in a week. Wu and Jiang on Sunday won the women’s doubles title at the ASB Classic in Auckland, beating Serbia’s Aleksandra Krunic and Sabrina Santamaria of the US. Their winning ways continued in Australia as they stretched
RSS