Richard Carapaz on Sunday regained the overall leader’s red jersey from Primoz Roglic in the Vuelta a Espana, opening up a 10-second advantage after stage 12 up the punishing Alto de l’Angliru, as Hugh Carthy pulled off a heroic solo victory.
Briton Carthy pulled clear of Aleksandr Vlasov and Enric Mas in the final kilometer just as the climb began to ease and accelerated toward the finish line to claim his first stage win at a Grand Tour.
Carthy crossed the line 16 seconds ahead of the Russian and the Spaniard, who came second and third, while Carapaz also finished 16 seconds down in fourth, but missed out on bonus seconds by failing to get on the podium.
Photo: EPA-EFE
“It’s a dream come true to win any professional race, but to win in a Grand Tour on a mythical climb, it doesn’t get any better than that,” Carthy said.
Ecuador’s Carapaz pulled off a series of attacks on Roglic over the final 2km and the Slovenian dug deep at first, before running out of energy as the gap widened, but he managed to limit the damage once the brutal climb lessened toward the summit.
“I’m very happy to wear the red jersey again. It’s a good thing for me, for the team, and for everything we’ve been doing,” Carapaz said. “I remembered it [the climb] from 2017, but it was incredible. I tried in the end, Mas and Carthy also went for it, and I continued with my pace and that gave me a 10-second advantage.”
Yesterday was the second rest day, with the action resuming today with an individual time trial.
Roglic will be extra keen to get a good result today after losing this year’s Tour de France in a time trial on the penultimate day.
The Slovenian, who has won three stages, including beating the sprinters to win stage 10, tried to look on the bright side after surrendering the lead.
“It was too hard a climb for a sprinter,” he said in jest. “I didn’t have the best day, but at the end it’s OK, I’m happy with it. Now we go on with the time trial on Tuesday. It definitely will be a really hard one. I will do my best and we will see after Tuesday.”
SWEEP THE LEG: Poirier, determined to best McGregor, after losing to him in 2014, used low calf kicks to throw ‘Notorious’ off his stand-up game, before dropping him American underdog Dustin Poirier yesterday shook up the world of mixed martial arts, beating up the legs of Irish superstar Conor McGregor before knocking him out at UFC 257 in Abu Dhabi. “I’m happy, but I’m not surprised. I put in the work,” Poirier said, after the referee stepped in after 2 minutes, 32 seconds of the second round to save McGregor from further damage, after he was dropped by a fierce combination of punches. The 32-year-old Poirier was ranked second in the flyweight division going into the fight, but still rated a heavy underdog by bookmakers to beat his fourth-ranked opponent,
LOOKING TO REPEAT: World No. 7 Lee Yang and Wang Chi-lin advanced to the round-of-16 at the Toyota Thailand Open, after winning the Yonex Thailand Open on Sunday Taiwan’s world No. 7 duo yesterday eased past the US’ world No. 37 pairing at the Toyota Thailand Open to reach the round-of-16 in Bangkok. Lee Yang and Wang Chi-lin beat Phillip Chew and Ryan Chew 21-14, 21-11 in just 24 minutes. Lee and Wang, who won the men’s doubles title at the Yonex Thailand Open on Sunday, next face the world No. 34 pairing, Canada’s Jason Anthony Ho-Shue and Nyl Yakura. In men’s singles, Taiwan’s world No. 2 Chou Tien-chen again beat Thailand’s world No. 45 Suppanyu Avihingsanon, after edging past the Thai player in the opening round of the Yonex
HOLDING STEADY: Taiwan’s Tai Tzu-ying pushed past Indonesia’s Gregoria Mariska Tunjung to advance to a quarter-finals match against world No. 10 Michelle Li Taiwan’s Chou Tien-chen and Wang Tzu-wei yesterday defeated their respective opponents in the second round of the Toyota Thailand Open, setting them up to face each other today in the quarter-finals. In an early match, world No. 12 Wang took 45 minutes to defeat Hong Kong’s Angus Ng Ka-long 21-13, 21-11. Last week, the world No. 8 ousted Wang from the Yonex tournament before defeating Chou in the semi-finals. Chou, world No. 2, defeated France’s Brice Leverdez in 48 minutes 21-19, 21-16. In other men’s singles matches, Indonesia’s fifth seed Anthony Ginting suffered an unexpected defeat to Hong Kong’s Lee Cheuk-yiu, who moved into
MARIN REMATCH: Tai Tzu-ying saved six game points in her semi-final against Ratchanok Intanon, who went into the match with a superior head-to-head record Taiwan’s Tai Tzu-ying reached the final of badminton’s Thailand Open yesterday with a three-set win over Ratchanok Intanon, setting up a rematch against Carolina Marin. Tai won 12-21, 21-12, 23-21 in 59 minutes to set up her second final against Marin in two weeks, while Lee Yang and Wang Chi-lin advanced to the final in the men’s doubles. However, Chou Tien-chen was eliminated in the semi-finals of the men’s singles. Tai saved six game points in the win against her Thai opponent Intanon, who went into the match with a superior head-to-head record against the Taiwanese world No. 1. Tai’s best streak was a
RSS