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SPORTSThursday 23 July 2015
What goes up also goes down, but Froome keeps Tour lead
JAMEY KEATEN Germany’s Simon Geschke celebrates as he crosses the finish “The best day of my life as Froome is expecting more
Associated Press line to win the seventeenth stage of the Tour de France cycling a rider,” he said of his win. attacks in the next three
PRA LOUP, France (AP) — race over 161 kilometers (100 miles) with start in Digne-les-Bains Contador hit a hole and days of progressively hard-
The speedometer clocked and finish in Pra Loup, France, Wednesday, July 22, 2015. crashed in the downhill er Alpine climbing before
between 50 and 60 kilome- section, tearing his shorts. the largely ceremonial ride
ters per hour (30-37 mph) Associated Press The 2007 and 2009 cham- on the Champs-Elysees in
as the pine trees whipped pion was forced to swap Paris on Sunday.
by, and the riders leaned to Pra Loup ski resort. bike-handling skill on the bikes with teammate Peter “My rivals are going to take
left to right and back again Allos descent, where he Sagan, and rode in more bigger risks,” Froome said.
to negotiate the snaking, Fellow American Tejay van whizzed in single-file with than two minutes after “We are seeing an all-or-
bumpy descent. three of them, each kick- Froome. nothing approach.”
Winning the Tour de France Garderen, who was third ing out knees on the twist- “My wheel slipped and I The descent wasn’t un-
isn’t only about having the ing, narrow bends. fell. We tried to fix my bike known to Froome. He’d
ability to get uphill fast. overall as the stage began, Geschke was first down the but it wasn’t working and I previously raced and
You’ve got to have nerves slope, having ridden off took Peter’s bike,” Conta- trained on it and that inside
of steel going downhill too. pulled out of the race with ahead with 50 kilometers dor said. “I tried to descend knowledge helped him ne-
Chris Froome proved (30 miles) still to go. Pinot hit as well as I could, but at the gotiate the bends.
Wednesday that he’s got a headache and a lack of the deck when his wheels bottom of the climb I had “I have never felt that de-
both. slipped from under him on to change back to one of scending has really been
The 30-year-old Briton re- energy after fighting a re- a left-hand bend. my own bikes to minimize a weakness for me. I have
tained the leader’s yellow “It was really challenging,” the losses.” always been quite com-
jersey as the Tour sped to- spiratory infection for sev- said Geschke, whose stage While the Spaniard stays in fortable on the descents,”
ward its crescendo in the victory was the fifth by a fifth place, the Tinkoff-Saxo he said.
Alps. eral days. German on this Tour, and leader who was hoping Alejandro Valverde of
The 17th stage included a ideal for an event that is to add the Tour to his Giro Spain, Quintana’s Movistar
harrowing 16-kilometer (10- “It almost feels like I just back on public TV in Ger- d’Italia win in May is now a teammate who has been
mile) descent that dealt many after a hiatus of sev- substantial 6 minutes and riding strongly, rose from
perhaps the final blow to want to disappear right eral years because of dop- 40 seconds behind the fourth to third overall, 4:09
Alberto Contador’s distant ing scandals that tarnished Team Sky rider overall — behind Froome. Froome’s
hope of a third Tour victory now,” said a despondent the sport’s image. and all but out of conten- Sky teammate Geraint
and doused the ambitions tion. Thomas climbed from sixth
of promising French rider Van Garderen. “It was hard Froome and Nairo Quin- to fourth, vaulting over
Thibaut Pinot for a stage tana sprinted together for Contador, and is 6:34 be-
win. They both lost time af- to look my teammates in the line, with the Colom- hind his team leader.
ter hitting the asphalt on bian just beating the Briton Riding solo for over an hour
the way down from the the eyes (and) it was hard this time. Quintana remains from such a long way out,
treacherous Allos Pass. second overall — still 3:10 up the two final climbs and
Germany’s Simon Geschke to call my wife and explain behind Froome — but was alone down the descent
won the stage by surging very active over the day’s was risky. But Geschke said
out of a breakaway bunch to her what was going on.” five climbs, testing Froome he knew that other riders
and keeping at bay An- with bursts of speed that in his group were stronger
drew Talansky of the U.S., Froome, meanwhile, the 2013 Tour winner was climbers, so he decided to
who was second, by 32 forced to match. shake them off as early as
seconds at the end of the emerged unscathed in the With time running out for he could.
161-kilometer (100-mile) podium contenders to “I took the only chance I
ride from Digne-Les-Bains first of four punishing days claw back a few minutes, had,” he said. q
in the Alps, staving off mul-
tiple attacks from his top
rivals. He showed great
Barcelona beats LA Galaxy 2-1
before record Rose Bowl crowd
FC Barcelona’s Luis Suarez, left, shoots to score as he is defend- reserves as they stayed practiced about seven also were unavailable be-
ed by Los Angeles Galaxy’s Dan Gargan during the first half of competitive with a Europe- days and had a lot of trav- cause of the Gold Cup.
an International Champions Cup soccer match Tuesday, July an superpower. eling, overall I come away Yet the Galaxy took con-
21, 2015, in Pasadena, Calif. Luis Suarez scored in the with a good sensation,” solation in a solid effort de-
45th minute, and Barce- Barcelona coach Luis En- spite missing several of their
Associated Press lona opened its U.S. pre- rique said through a trans- own regulars — and their
season tour with a 2-1 vic- lator. “I’m happy with the second-half lineup filled
GREG BEACHAM mighty Barcelona’s solid tory over the defending way the team played over- with youngsters even got a
AP Sports Writer season-opening perfor- MLS champions Tuesday all. The intensity was simi- goal. Tommy Meyer scored
PASADENA, Calif. (AP) mance against the LA Gal- night. lar to what we’ve seen in on a header off a pass from
— The record Rose Bowl axy. Sergi Roberto also scored practice.” Mika Vayrynen late in sec-
crowd of 93,226 largely By the final minutes, many in the 56th minute as the The record crowd largely ond-half injury time, deny-
wore scarlet and blue, of those same fans were UEFA Champions League supported Barcelona de- ing Barcelona of a clean
chanting and cheering on roaring for the local team’s winners largely controlled spite the absence of Lionel sheet.
their first match of the new Messi and Neymar, who “I’m really speechless to be
year, delighting the big- stayed home from the In- able to play on the same
gest crowd for a club soc- ternational Champions field with such great profes-
cer game involving an MLS Cup tour to stay fresh for sional athletes, people I’ve
team in U.S. history. the games that count. Dani watched on TV for so long,”
“Considering we’ve only Alves and Claudio Bravo said Ariel Lassiter,. q
