Alexandre Vinokourov showed he retains the freshness of a youngster to wrong-foot the peloton and win the 165.7km third stage of the Tour of Romandie on Friday.
While a mass sprint looked unavoidable after a fast ride around Neuchatel Lake, Germany’s Tony Martin surged with 3km to go and Vinokourov immediately took his wheel.
In the final stretch, the 37-year-old from Kazakhstan was too experienced for the Paris-Nice winner and for Frenchman Mickael Cherel, who finished second ahead of Martin, who was third.
Photo: Reuters
The stage win allowed Vinokourov, winner of the Vuelta a Espana in 2006, to move up to second overall, 32 seconds behind Russia’s Pavel Brutt.
“I wanted to keep some strength for tomorrow’s time trial, but when I saw Martin attack, I told myself he would go all the way,” Vinokourov said. “I went behind him and closed the gap.”
A 20.1km time trial between Aubonne and Signal-de-Bougy looks set to decide the race, with some other top names still in with a chance of the title.
Australia’s 2009 world champion Cadel Evans, a time-trial specialist, is fourth in the general classification, 42 seconds adrift.
Martin, the favorite of many after his show of strength in the Paris-Nice in March, lies 1 minute, 18 seconds off the pace.
“The legs respond well and it will be a major bonus to start the time trial behind Evans, aware of his times, but to me, Evans is the main favorite. He looks in great shape,” Vinokourov said. “As for Martin, he beat me by more than 1 minute, 20 seconds in Paris-Nice, but I hope he has tired a bit since then.”
Vinokourov, who finished third in the 2003 Tour de France before being kicked out of the race in 2007 after failing a dope test for blood transfusion, confirmed he would be the Astana team leader in July’s race.
“I worked as a team captain for Alberto Contador on the last Tour, but I want to give it another try as a leader,” Vinokourov said.
“I’m not expecting to win it, but I dream of holding the yellow jersey, as I’ve never had the chance to, and to hold it for a few days. Or go for the best climber’s polka dot,” he said.
Former world No. 2 Paula Badosa has withdrawn from this week’s Wuhan Open, organizers said on Tuesday, amid a racism row over an online photograph. Tournament organizers said the Spaniard had pulled out of the WTA 1000 tournament, citing a gastrointestinal illness, hours before her first-round match against Australian Ajla Tomljanovic. News outlets including Britain’s the Telegraph earlier reported that Badosa had posted a photo on Instagram in which she appeared to imitate a Chinese face by placing chopsticks on the corners of her eyes. The photo was taken last week in a restaurant in Beijing, where she reached the semi-finals of the
Shin Oebori coaches the Fukagawa Hawks youth baseball team in Tokyo, and he is very aware how Los Angeles Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani touches his players. “With Ohtani, the kids think everything is possible,” Oebori said, wrapping up practice yesterday on an all-dirt field set alongside a local Buddhist temple, below an elevated highway, and in the shadow of tall apartment blocks in central Tokyo. “Nothing is impossible with him. A dream is not a dream,” Oebori said, stepping out of the fenced practice field that keeps balls from landing on the temple grounds. None of the players hitting sponge-soft baseball has reached
Italian defender Marco Curto has been banned for 10 matches for racially abusing South Korean forward Hwang Hee-chan while playing for Como 1907 against Wolverhampton Wanderers in a pre-season friendly in July. Curto, who is on loan from Como to Serie B club Cesena, would serve half of the punishment immediately with the other half suspended for two years. “The player Marco Curto was found responsible for discriminatory behavior and sanctioned with a 10-match suspension,” a FIFA spokesperson said. “The player is ordered to render community services and undergo training and education with an organization approved by FIFA.” Wolves said the club would
CRICKET Azhar’s 59 leads Stallions Aashir Azhar’s blazing half-century guided the Taipei Stallions to victory over Taipei Super 11 in the Taiwan Premier League’s Group A at the Yingfeng Cricket Ground in Taipei yesterday. The Stallions were 102-3 and into the 12th over of 20 when Azhar came to the crease. He hit seven sixes and two fours in the 25 deliveries he faced to push his side to 171-5. Gokul Kumar was the star with the ball for Super 11, taking 3-17. In the reply, Deepak Vishnu outscored Azhar with 77 from 50 balls, but nobody else got past 20 as
RSS