Italy’s Elia Viviani yesterday slipped through a tiny gap near the finish line to win the first stage of the Tour Down Under as the riders faced the dual challenge of extreme heat and strong winds.
Viviani was tucked back in the peloton, behind triple world champion Peter Sagan, as riders raced toward the finish of the 129km stage in Port Adelaide.
First Danny van Poppel of the Netherlands, then Germany’s Maximilian Walscheid hit the front in the straight sprint to the finish, and Walscheid looked to have made the winning burst, but Viviani, who fell during the 50km tour prelude on Sunday, showed fearlessness as he threaded his way along the barriers to dash past Walsheid for the stage victory.
Photo: AFP
Riders had to contend with temperatures in the high 30s Celsius as they raced through the Adelaide Hills, then contended with heat and crosswinds on the long ride along a broad and exposed motorway to the finish.
Organizers had intended to finish with a 3.4km circuit, but after concerns about the heat, winds and possible traffic problems, they opted instead for a straight run into the finish.
“Today, the plan was to wait a little bit and put me in the best position,” Viviani said. “Also the lead-out guys had to bring some wind in the face from five kilometers to one kilometer out. Sometimes the danger is you don’t have the space to go through, but I found a little space on the left on the barriers.”
Viviani claimed the victory for Deceuninck-Quick-Step ahead of Team Sunweb’s Walscheid, while CCC’s Jakub Mareczko was third.
Sagan of Bora-Hansgrohe finished in eighth place with the same time as the winner.
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
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
Dubbed a “motorway for cyclists” where avid amateurs can chase Tadej Pogacar up mountains teeming with the highest concentration of professional cyclists per square kilometer in the world, Spain’s Costa Blanca has forged a new reputation for itself in the past few years. Long known as the ideal summer destination for those in search of sun, sea and sand, the stretch of coast between Valencia and Alicante now has a winter vocation too. During the season break in December and January, the region experiences an invasion of cyclists. Star names such as three-time Tour de France winner Pogacar, Remco Evenepoel and Julian Alaphilippe
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