About 2,500 cyclists from 32 countries yesterday joined two Grand Tour cyclists for the first-ever L’Etape du Tour de France in Taiwan.
Seven-time Grand Tour champion Christopher Froome and recently retired all-time great Mark Cavendish, who in July achieved a record-breaking 35th Tour de France stage win, took center stage in the Tour de France sportive series event in Nantou County.
L’Etape du Tour de France, which was launched in 1993 and is organized by the Paris-based Amaury Sport Organisation, offers participants a glimpse of the Grand Tour experience.
Photo courtesy of the Tourism Administration
The event in Taiwan featured two routes: a 104km and a 29km course.
The 104km route included a yellow jersey competition and two King of the Mountain sections.
The mountain winners earned slots in next year’s L’Etape Championship in France.
Cyclists on the longer route passed cultural landmarks such as Xuanguang Temple, Ita Thao Pier and Shuishe Pier while enjoying the stunning scenery of Sun Moon Lake and the surrounding mountains.
The Sun Moon Lake cycling route has been recognized by CNN as one of the “Top 10 most beautiful cycling routes in the world.”
Shaquille O’Neal is staying with TNT Sports on a new contract worth more than US$15 million per year, Front Office Sports reported on Friday. The news means the cast of Inside the NBA is staying together even as TNT is set to license out the show to ESPN starting next season. TNT was the odd network out in the NBA’s recent TV rights negotiations, as NBC and Amazon joined previous rightsholder ESPN in inking deals for basketball games. That left TNT without a need for pregame and postgame NBA shows. In a trade with ESPN, TNT is licensing Inside the NBA to the
Juventus on Sunday stopped Inter from replacing SSC Napoli at the top of Serie A by beating their fierce rivals 1-0 and moving into the UEFA Champions League positions. Francisco Conceicao made sure that Napoli would stay two points ahead of reigning champions Inter by classily tucking home the winning goal 16 minutes before the end of an entertaining contest in Turin. Portugal attacker Conceicao netted his fourth goal of the season in all competitions after brilliant work from Randal Kolo Muani to give Juve a third straight league win. Juve are in fourth place on 46 points, ahead on goal-difference from SS
BELGIANS ADVANCE: Club Brugge gave Atalanta a lesson in efficiency, as Gian Piero Gasperini’s team had 29 efforts at goal, compared with seven from the visitors Seldom has a player’s sending off had such an influence on a game. AC Milan was to left rue Theo Hernandez’s second yellow card — for diving — as Feyenoord advanced to the UEFA Champions League last 16 at the former European champion’s expense with a 1-1 draw in the second leg of their playoff on Tuesday, giving the Dutch team a 2-1 win on aggregate. Bayern Munich, Club Brugge and Benfica also won their playoffs, eliminating Celtic, UEFA Europa League winner Atalanta BC and French team AS Monaco respectively. “In soccer everything changes in a second,” said Milan forward
Eugenie Bouchard already has her own signature pickleball paddle. She is No. 17 in the pickleball rankings and constantly appears on the main court at events because she is always a big draw. However, just to be absolutely clear, she is not retired from tennis. The 2014 Wimbledon finalist still practices on the tennis court, still competes at tennis events and still has a Women’s Tennis Association ranking (No. 1,288). The Canadian standout just has a new sport that has caught her attention. Bouchard is one of several familiar tennis names — like Jack Sock and Donald Young — crossing over to
RSS