Italian rider Jonathan Milan on Monday prevailed in a chaotic scramble for the line to claim first stage honors in the UAE Tour.
Tour de France champion and hot favorite Tadej Pogacar was in contention on his season debut.
The Slovenian, resplendent in his world champion’s rainbow jersey, launched the sprint 350m from the finish only to run out of steam close to home. He had to settle for 10th place.
Photo: AFP
“It was supposed to be a lead-out for our sprinter, but he crashed out, so I was kind of stuck in the lead-out idea,” Pogacar said.
Milan was followed home by Jasper Philipsen, but the Belgian was demoted to 52nd place for hampering Finn Fisher-Black.
The New Zealander inherited second place, with Denmark’s Tobias Lund Andresen third.
Pogacar proved he embarks on the season in good shape, displaying plenty of verve throughout the 138km ride from Madinat Zayed to Liwa, United Arab Emirates, to suggest he would be the man to beat come Sunday’s time-trial conclusion.
Pogacar is aiming for a third win in the race after 2021 and 2022.
Milan was enjoying his moment in the sunshine after a tough day in the saddle.
“I feel brutally tired after this sprint. The warmth and the last 700m of the race have made it really tough, more than I was thinking. It was a pretty intense day,” Milan said.
“I must thank my guys. They controlled, supported me and led me to the final stretch. I’m super happy with this victory, it was so hard,” added the 24-year-old, who is with the Lidl-Trek team.
Pogacar was looking forward to testing his fitness yesterday’s second stage, a 12km race against the clock on Al Hudayriyat Island.
“It’s going to be the first real effort of the season. There was a lot of work done this winter and I hope it pays off tomorrow,” Pogacar said.
Nottingham Forest FC are to go into the Europa League play-off round after a 4-0 win over Ferencvaros TC on Thursday, while Celtic FC secured their place in the knockout phase with a victory over FC Utrecht. Aston Villa FC finished second in the league phase after recovering from two goals down to beat FC Red Bull Salzburg 3-2 with their spot in the last 16 already assured. Forest stood an outside chance of climbing into the top eight going into the final round of matches, but needed to beat Robbie Keane’s Ferencvaros and rely on other results going their way. Sean Dyche’s
HEATED RIVALRY: The pair had met 14 times previously, with Sabalenka winning eight of the encounters and entering the final as the favorite to take the title Elena Rybakina took revenge over world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka to win a nail-biting Australian Open final yesterday and clinch her second Grand Slam title. The big-serving Kazakh fifth seed held her nerve to pull through 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 at Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne in 2 hours, 18 minutes. It was payback after the Belarusian Sabalenka won the 2023 final between two of the hardest hitters in women’s tennis. The ice-cool Rybakina, 26, who was born in Moscow, adds her Melbourne triumph to her Wimbledon win in 2022. It was more disappointment in a major final for Sabalenka, who won the US Open
Denver superstar Nikola Jokic returned from a 16-game injury absence to post a 31-point, 12-rebound double-double on Friday and propel the Nuggets to a 122-109 NBA victory over the Los Angeles Clippers. Three-time NBA Most Valuable Player Jokic had not played since suffering a bone bruise in the left knee he hyperextended in a game against Miami on Dec. 29 last year. The Serbian big man did not miss a beat. He led all scorers, connecting on eight of 11 shots from the field, and also handed out five assists with three steals while playing just 24 minutes, 32 seconds as the
BATTERED AND BRUISED: Alcaraz suffered a cramp in the third set, but was allowed treatment despite Zverev’s protests, and continued on to win in five-and-a-half hours An ailing Carlos Alcaraz battled past Alexander Zverev yesterday in five epic sets to reach his first Australian Open final and move within a match of becoming the youngest man to complete a career Grand Slam. The world No. 1 outlasted the German third seed 6-4, 7-6 (7/5), 6-7 (3/7), 6-7 (4/7), 7-5 over a titanic 5 hours, 27 minutes in hot conditions to head to tomorrow’s title match. He only narrowly avoided crashing out after a huge fright at 4-4 in the third set when he pulled up in pain with what appeared to be cramp. He was allowed to have treatment
RSS