Colombian Santiago Buitrago on Wednesday won the first mountain stage of Paris-Nice after an exhilarating finish in the Beaujolais wine-growing region that went down to the final kilometer.
The 183km fourth stage from Chalon-sur-Saone to Mont Brouilly, France, featured six category 2 climbs and a category 1 in the shape of the 7.3 percent Col du Fut d’Avenas, 20km before the finish line.
“I really did not expect this... To win a World Tour race here in France is exceptional for me,” Buitrago said. “I had good legs and a good breakaway companion with [Luke] Plapp, who helped me into the finale. I’m also well placed in the GC [general classification], so it’s great.”
Photo: AFP
Going pedal to pedal with Plapp of Team Jayco AlUla, Team Bahrain’s Buitrago claimed the imposing 3km final ascent of Mont Brouilly to take his first ever Paris-Nice stage victory.
Mathieu Burgaudeau and Christian Scaroni broke away from the leading pack on the ascent of Col de Durbize, with just over 50km left to race, before the Italian showed the Frenchman a clean set of wheels to streak out on his own as the summit approached.
Scaroni sat out just in front until the stage’s daunting Col du Fut d’Avenas climb at the 161km mark, where Buitrago and Plapp attacked to take the lead.
The pair battled it out neck-and-neck over the stage’s final 20km until the Colombian found a final burst on the last ascent to leave his Australian competitor behind and claim the win.
Despite coming second, Plapp claimed the overall leader’s jersey from Brandon McNulty, who dropped to third just behind stage-winner Buitrago.
Remco Evenepoel of Soudal Quick-Step, one of the favorites to win the race, attacked twice in the final kilometer to finish fourth in the stage and move up to fifth in the general classification.
Evenepoel went head-to-head with rival Primoz Roglic in the stage’s intermediate sprint and the Belgian emerged victorious, picking up six seconds to the Slovenian’s four.
Egan Bernal of Ineos Grenadiers and Bora–Hansgrohe’s Roglic finished fifth and seventh respectively on the day.
Former Tour de France and Giro d’Italia winner Bernal is sixth overall, 40 seconds behind Plapp, with Roglic another 30 seconds back in 15th place.
Shohei Ohtani and Clayton Kershaw on Friday joined their Los Angeles Dodgers teammates in sticking their fists out to show off their glittering World Series rings at a ceremony. “There’s just a lot of excitement, probably more than I can ever recall with the Dodger fan base and our players,” manager Dave Roberts said before Los Angeles rallied to beat the Detroit Tigers 8-5 in 10 innings. “What a way to cap off the first two days of celebrations,” Roberts said afterward. “By far the best opening week I’ve ever experienced. I just couldn’t have scripted it any better.” A choir in the
The famously raucous Hong Kong Sevens are to start today in a big test for a shiny new stadium at the heart of a major US$3.85 billion sports park in the territory. Officials are keeping their fingers crossed that the premier event in Hong Kong’s sporting and social calendar goes off without a hitch at the 50,000-seat Kai Tak Stadium. They hope to entice major European soccer teams to visit in the next few months, with reports in December last year saying that Liverpool were in talks about a pre-season tour. Coldplay are to perform there next month, all part of Hong Kong’s
Shohei Ohtani, Teoscar Hernandez and Tommy Edman on Thursday smashed home runs to give the reigning World Series champions the Los Angeles Dodgers a 5-4 victory over Detroit on the MLB’s opening day in the US. The Dodgers, who won two season-opening games in Tokyo last week, raised their championship banner on a day when 28 clubs launched the season in the US. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts shuffled his batting lineup with all four leadoff hitters finally healthy as Ohtani was followed by Mookie Betts, then Hernandez and Freddie Freeman in the cleanup spot, switching places with Hernandez. “There’s a Teoscar tax to
Marcus Rashford’s first goals for Aston Villa on Sunday inspired a 3-0 win against Preston North End that sent his side into the FA Cup semi-finals for the first time in 10 years. Rashford struck twice in the second half at Deepdale to end Preston’s stubborn resistance before Jacob Ramsey wrapped up Villa’s long-awaited return to the last four. Villa are to face Crystal Palace — 3-0 winners at Fulham on Saturday — in the semi-finals at Wembley Stadium in London. Revitalized since joining Villa on loan from Manchester United during the January transfer window, Rashford is beginning to show the form that