Norwegian sprint specialist Thor Hushovd won the sixth stage of the Tour of Spain on Thursday, while Belgium’s Philippe Gilbert retained the overall leader’s red jersey.
The Cervelo rider beat Italy’s Daniele Bennati and Slovenia’s Grega Bole to the line in a mass sprint at the end of the 151km ride from Caravaca de la Cruz to Murcia in southeastern Spain. Fourth was Australia’s Allan Davis.
The stage included a 2nd category climb toward the end followed by a steep downhill stretch to the finish.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Hushovd said he knew the final descent was “dangerous and technical, so I didn’t take any risks, I just stayed easy in the bunch and saved for the sprint.”
“I was motivated for this stage,” said the 32-year-old, who has twice won the green jersey as best sprinter in the Tour de France. “I knew this climb and that maybe the best sprinters would get dropped, so I hung on and then in the end the Cervelo Test team did a great job for me so I’m really, really pleased for myself and for the whole team.”
His Cervelo teammate, Spain’s Carlos Sastre, also hailed the team effort that led to the first stage win for the Swiss outfit in this year’s event.
PHOTO: AFP
He said “very few sprinters” were able to stay keep up during the final climb.
“That meant our team ... was able to control the head of the race so Hushovd could fight for victory in the sprint,” said the 2008 Tour de France winner, who finished with the main group.
The stage was marked by an early breakaway by three riders — Germany’s Markus Eichler, France’s Freddy Bichot and Spain’s Juan Javier Estrada Ruiz.
They built up a lead of more than nine minutes but they were caught on the final hill climb with about 18km to go.
Gilbert, who rides for the Omega Pharma team, finished with the same time as Hushovd and retains his lead in the overall classification, which he first claimed from Britain’s Mark Cavendish after winning Monday’s third stage.
He is 10 seconds ahead of two Spaniards, Igor Anton and Joaquin Rodriguez.
Yesterday’s seventh stage was to take the riders 187.1km from Murcia to Orihuela, and included just one third category climb.
The 21-stage Tour of Spain, which began last Saturday with a team time trial through the streets of Seville, wraps up in Madrid on Sept. 19.
The next generation of running talent takes center stage at today’s Berlin Marathon, in the absence of stars including Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge and Ethiopian world record holder Tigist Assefa. With most of the major marathon stars skipping the event in the wake of the Paris Olympics just more than a month ago, the field is wide open in the men’s and women’s races. Since 2015, Kipchoge has won five times in Berlin, Kenenisa Bekele has won twice and Guye Adola once — with all three missing today. Kenyan Kibiwott Kandie and Ethiopian Tadese Takele are among the favourites for the men, while
Taiwan’s Tony Wu yesterday beat Mackenzie McDonald of the US to win the Nonthaburi Challenger IV in Thailand, his first challenger victory since 2022. The 26-year-old world No. 315, who won both his qualifiers to advance to the main draw, has been on a hot streak this month, winning his past nine matches, including two that ensured Taiwan’s victory in their Davis Cup World Group I tie. Wu took just more than two hours to top world No. 172 McDonald 6-3, 7-6 (7/4) to win his second challenger tournament since the Tallahassee Tennis Challenger in 2022. Wu’s Tallahassee win followed two years of
Zhang Shuai yesterday said that she nearly quit after losing 24 matches in a row — now the world No. 595 is into the quarter-finals of her home China Open. The 35-year-old is to face Spain’s Paula Badosa as the lowest-ranked player to reach this stage in the history of the tournament after Badosa reeled off 11 of the last 12 games in a 6-4, 6-0 victory over US Open finalist Jessica Pegula. Zhang went into Beijing on a barren run lasting more than 600 days and her string of singles defeats was the second-longest on the WTA Tour Open era, which
Nick Castellanos, Trea Turner and Kody Clemens homered on Wednesday as the Philadelphia Phillies beat the Chicago Cubs 9-6 and clinched a first-round bye in the playoffs. Castellanos had three hits and scored three times. Bryson Stott also had three hits and Brandon Marsh drove in three runs for the Phillies, who on Monday claimed their first National League East title in 13 years. Coupled with the Milwaukee Brewers’ 2-1 loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates, Philadelphia secured the bye and home-field advantage in the NL Division Series. The Phillies owned the tiebreaker with the Brewers after winning the season series against the
RSS