The Tour of the Algarve was branded as “ridiculous” and a “joke” on Wednesday when a pack of riders took the wrong road and completely missed the finish line.
With about 800m left on the opening stage, most of the peloton took a right-hand exit, reserved for officials and team cars, at a roundabout instead of the left, which headed to the finish.
Only about 30 riders chose the correct route, including Filippo Ganna, who came home ahead of Frenchman Romain Gregoire and Jan Christen of Switzerland.
Photo: EPA-EFE
However, their joy was short-lived as the stage was swiftly canceled and Ganna’s career wins total remains at 33.
“It’s a joke! It’s completely ridiculous!” Austrian rider Marco Haller said.
“The diversion was not blocked off. As a result, the riders followed the motorcycle [of the organization]. There could have been consequences... Fortunately, that was not the case,” he said.
Belgium’s Jordi Meeus, for whom Haller “had ridden for 190km,” railed at having been deprived of a stage win.
“I only realized 200m from the line that there was a problem when we passed police motorcycles. It’s a shame this missed opportunity. The main thing is that no spectator was injured,” he told Flemish Web site Sporza.
His compatriot Wout van Aert, one of the favorites for the stage, was dumbfounded by the chaotic conclusion, which saw the peloton weaving its way around bemused spectators.
“It’s not possible... This road should have been closed,” Van Aert said.
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