Luis Leon Sanchez won the Paris-Nice race despite a bold raid from fellow Spaniard Alberto Contador on the eighth and last stage around Nice on Sunday.
Another Spaniard, Antonio Colom of Katusha, was the first to cross the line at the end of the 119km ride featuring three category-one climbs, outsprinting Astana’s Contador and Luxembourg’s Frank Schleck of Saxo Bank.
Caisse d’Epargne rider Sanchez, who took the overall lead with victory on Saturday, ended the stage 17 seconds behind, keeping the yellow jersey with a one-minute advantage over Schleck in second place.
France’s Sylvain Chavanel of Quick Step was third, nine seconds further behind, with Contador fourth 1.24 off the pace.
“I had talked with Frank Schleck and I was confident his [Saxo Bank] team would do some work in the peloton,” Sanchez said.
Astana sporting director Alain Gallopin hit out at the Saxo Bank team’s tactics, saying their collaboration with Sanchez led to Contador’s defeat while failing to hand Schleck a victory.
Gallopin said that when Saxo Bank appeared to help Sanchez “I went to see Kim Andersen [Saxo Bank sporting director] and said to him, ‘Why are you doing that?’”
In Rome, Germany’s Andreas Kloden won the fifth stage of the Tirreno-Adriatico race on Sunday, topping a 30km individual time-trial between Loreto and Macerata ahead of Stijn Devolder of Belgium and Sweden’s Thomas Lovkvist.
Kloden, the winner in 2007, also took the overall lead in the week-long race that concludes today.
He leads Lovkvist by six seconds but with two stages remaining more suitable to sprint finishes, the German looks set to repeat his victory of two years ago.
‘SOURCE OF PRIDE’: Newspapers rushed out special editions and the government sent their congratulations as Shohei Ohtani became the first player to enter the 50-50 club Japan reacted with incredulity and pride yesterday after Shohei Ohtani became the first player in Major League Baseball to record 50 home runs and 50 stolen bases in a single season. The Los Angeles Dodgers star from Japan made history with a seventh-inning homer in a 20-4 victory over the Marlins in Miami. “We would like to congratulate him from the bottom of our heart,” top government spokesman Yoshimasa Hayashi told reporters in Tokyo. “We sincerely hope Mr Ohtani, who has already accomplished feat after feat and carved out a new era, will thrive further,” he added. The landmark achievement dominated Japanese morning news
When Wang Tao ran away from home aged 17 to become a professional wrestler, he knew it would be a hard slog to succeed in China’s passionate but underdeveloped scene. Years later, he has endured family disapproval, countless side gigs and thousands of hours of brutal training to become China’s “Belt and Road Champion” — but the struggle is far from over. Despite a promising potential domestic market, the Chinese pro wrestling community has been battling for recognition and financial stability for decades. “I have done all kinds of jobs [on the side]... Because in the end, it is very
No team in the CPBL can surpass the Taipei Dome attendance record set by the CTBC Brothers, except when the Brothers team up with Taiwanese rock band Mayday. A record-high 40,000 fans turned out at the indoor baseball venue on Saturday for Brothers veteran Chou Szu-chi’s first farewell game, which was followed by a mini post-game concert featuring Mayday. This broke the previous CPBL record of 34,506 set by the Brothers in early last month, when K-pop singer Hyuna performed after the game, and the dome’s overall record of 37,890 set in early March, which featured the Brothers and the
With a quivering finger, England Subbuteo veteran Rudi Peterschinigg conceded the free-kick that sent his country’s World Cup quarter-final into extra-time before smashing his plastic goalkeeper on the floor in frustration. In the genteel southern English town of Tunbridge Wells, 300 elite players have gathered to play the game they love. “I won’t say this is the best weekend I’ve ever had in my life, but it’s certainly in the top two,” said Hughie Best, 58, who flew in from Perth, Australia, to compete and commentate at the event. Tunbridge Wells is the “spiritual home” of Subbuteo, which was invented there in 1946