Slovakian prodigy Peter Sagan snatched his second victory in the highly competitive Paris-Nice race with a late burst of speed to prevail in the fifth stage on Friday.
The 20-year-old Liquigas rider, in his first season in cycling’s elite, attacked the peloton with France’s Christophe Le Mevel less than 2km from the finish and held on to beat Italian Mirco Lorenzetto by two seconds.
Sagan perfectly held off the favorites’ chase in the final stretch, a short 400m ascent.
PHOTO: AFP
Spain’s Alejandro Valverde took third place to bag a four-second time bonus and narrow the gap on overall leader Alberto Contador to 20 seconds.
The twice Tour de France champion finished safe in the favorites’ group, although his Astana team had a rough day in southern France.
They never controlled the stage, but Contador stayed vigilant and went over to Sagan to congratulate him after the finish.
It had briefly looked like an upset was on the cards when Reine Taaramae took advantage of a counterattack after Leonardo Duque broke away on his own and the Estonian champion slipped into a group of four that built an 80-second lead.
Taaramae prompted the bunch to react, with Astana leaving the Caisse d’Epargne and Lampre squads to lead the chase.
It was game over for the fugitives 22km from the line, but the bunch split in two when the AG2R La Mondiale team tried to catch the big guns off guard with a sudden acceleration shortly afterwards. The decisive burst, however, came from Sagan.
■TIRRENO-ADRIATICO
AP, MONSUMMANO TERME, ITALY
Daniele Bennati won the third stage of the Tirreno-Adriatico race to overtake Linus Gerdemann for the overall lead.
The Italian, who rides for Liquigas, broke from the pack in a sprint finish to cross the line first on Friday. Compatriot Alessandro Petacchi was second and Austria’s Bernhard Eisel finished third.
Bennati finished the 159km stage from San Miniato in 3 hours, 54 minutes and 9 seconds, with Petacchi and Eisel coming home with the same time. Bennati’s cumulative time is 11 hours, 44 minutes and 23 seconds.
Bologna on Thursday advanced past Empoli to reach their first Coppa Italia final in more than half a century. Thijs Dallinga’s 87th-minute header earned Bologna a 2-1 win and his side advanced 5-1 on aggregate. Giovanni Fabbian opened the scoring for Bologna with a header seven minutes in. Then Viktor Kovalenko equalized for Empoli in the 30th minute by turning in a rebound to finish off a counterattack. Bologna won the first leg 3-0. In the May 14 final in Rome, Bologna are to face AC Milan, who eliminated city rivals Inter 4-1 on aggregate following a 3-0 win on Wednesday. Bologna last reached the
If the Wild finally break through and win their first playoff series in a decade, Minnesota’s top line likely will be the reason. They were all over the Golden Knights through the first two games of their NHL Western Conference quarter-finals series, which was 1-1 going back to Minnesota for Game 3 today. The Wild tied the series with a 5-2 win on Tuesday. Matt Boldy had three goals and an assist in the first two games, while Kirill Kaprizov produced two goals and three assists. Joel Eriksson Ek, who centers the line, has yet to get on the scoresheet. “I think the biggest
From a commemorative jersey to a stadium in his name, Argentine soccer organizers are planning a slew of tributes to their late “Captain” Pope Francis, eulogized as the ultimate team player. Tributes to the Argentine pontiff, a lifelong lover of the game, who died on Monday at the age of 88, have been peppered with soccer metaphors in his homeland. “Francisco. What a player,” the Argentine Football Federation (AFA) said, describing the first pope from Latin America and the southern hemisphere as a generational talent who “never hogged the ball” and who showed the world “the importance of having an Argentine captain,
Noelvi Marte on Sunday had seven RBIs and hit his first career grand slam with a drive off infielder Jorge Mateo, while Austin Wynn had a career-high six RBIs as the Cincinnati Reds scored their most runs in 26 years in a 24-2 rout of the Baltimore Orioles. Marte finished with five hits, including his eighth-inning homer off Mateo. Wynn hit a three-run homer in the ninth off catcher Gary Sanchez. Cincinnati scored its most runs since a 24-12 win against the Colorado Rockies on May 19, 1999, and finished with 25 hits. Baltimore allowed its most runs since a 30-3 loss to
RSS