Chris Froome took a commanding lead at the Vuelta on Wednesdayas the four-times Tour de France winner finished second on the 187.5km route from Lorca to Observatorio de Calar Alto, won by Colombia’s Miguel ángel López. Froome’s second-placed finish, 14 seconds behind López, was accompanied by six bonus seconds and time gains over many of his rivals as his overall advantage grew to one minute 19 seconds. Froome is seeking to become only the third person to win the Tour-Vuelta double in the same year and the first since 1978. The Tour of Spain was moved from April to its present post-Tour position in 1995. Froome had held a 36-second lead over Colombia’s Esteban Chaves (Orica-Scott) entering the 11th stage of the race, which finishes in Madrid on 10 September. The mountainous route offered an opportunity for Froome’s rivals to claw back some time but the Briton proved strong once again. Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain-Merida) accelerated on the final ascent but Froome bridged the gap. López surged and Froome, aware the Astana rider is not an overall threat, was content to allow him to push on for the stage win. Nibali, who won La Vuelta in 2010, was then beaten to the line by Froome as the Italian finished third to gain four bonus seconds. Holland’s Wilco Kelderman (Team Sunweb) was fourth, also 14secs behind but without any bonus time. Chaves finished 17th on the stage, 2min 05sec behind López to fall 2:33 behind Froome overall. He dropped to third overall behind Nibali. Ireland’s Nicolas Roche (BMC Racing) had begun the day in third, 36sec behind, but finished 4:17 behind López on the stage to fall to 11th overall, 4:45 adrift, which in effect ends his podium hopes. Advertisement Meanwhile, Team Sky have unveiled a strong six-man squad for the OVO Energy Tour of Britain, led by Geraint Thomas and Michal Kwiatkowski. Thomas and his fellow Welshman Owain Doull were announced in the Team Sky squad last week for the race which begins in Edinburgh on Sunday and finishes in their native Cardiff a week later. Poland’s Kwiatkowski, the 2014 world road race champion, and Belarus’s Vasil Kiryienka, the 2015 world time-trial champion, will also ride for the British team before the Road World Championship in Bergen, Norway towards the end of next month. Italy’s Elia Viviani, the Olympic omnium champion on the track, is
http://www.authenticducksstore.com/mike-santorelli-jersey_c-432.html the team’s sprinter and Londoner Tao Geoghegan Hart, who is enjoying a strong first year at Team Sky. Thomas won the opening time-trial of the Tour de France on 1 July to take the race leader’s yellow jersey for the first time in his career. It was a welcome response after the 31-year-old had been forced to abandon May’s Giro d’Italia following a crash, but then Thomas had to quit the Tour with a fractured collarbone. Thomas won two Olympic team pursuit gold medals in 2008 and 2012 and Doull was part of the victorious British team in Rio in 2016. Thomas, racing in the Tour of Britain for the first time since 2011, said: “The support from the British fans is always fantastic and it’s going to be great to race at home. We’ve got a strong squad coming and I’m really looking forward to it. “Coming back to Cardiff is going to be special and it’s something the Welsh guys have been talking about since the route was announced. I’m sure the fans will do us proudEnter Shakib. Enticing Warner to pull off the front foot, some variable bounce was enough to trap the opener and halted his stand with Smith at 130. They had their breakthrough, at last, with 107 runs still
Authentic Chris Kaman Womens Jersey to play with. Four overs later they had the captain as well, edging when attempting to cut a fraction too close a delivery that bounced a fraction too much. Game on. Advertisement Peter Handscomb, too smart by half, gifted a catch to slip off third spinner Taijul Islam, who became an awful lot more than that as the day wore on. It was Shakib’s turn again when Wade came and went, the wicketkeeper’s disastrous match complete when missing on the inside edge in a fashion so familiar in Asia. Heading into lunch, Ashton Agar was Taijul’s second, returning a catch, misfiring with his first shot of note. To the interval, hopes rested with Glenn Maxwell who surveyed much of the damage from the other end while looking altogether competent, especially in defence. In a tough moment to watch for fans of the Victorian, he made room for himself by backing away to the legside to the first ball of the fresh session, but his off-stump was clipped when the Shakib’s straighter one didn’t bounce. But that’s no excuse; variable bounce was the norm all day, and it had to be accounted for. Joining Cummins with 66 to get and two wickets left, Nathan Lyon swept and swept until he missed. After his nine wickets, he isn’t where the blame lies. Instead, credit to Mushfiqur Rahim, who brought back 19-year-old wunderkind off-spinner Mehedi Hasan just at the point where Taijul was taking some tap. The 29 runs tallied for that ninth wicket did put Australia vaguely within striking distance. At least that was the case when Cummings went on to take 15 from Mehedi’s next over, including two massive sixes over
http://www.officialblazershop.com/authentic-22-clyde-drexler-jersey.html square leg. Suddenly, it was 20 to get. But Shakib’s timely maiden put the injured Josh Hazlewood at the business end for the start of a new over. Taijul was brought back for it, needing only five balls to hit the No11 plum in front. Game over. But what a game. For Bangladesh’s part, they have defeated England and Australia in consecutive Tests at Dhaka – the first time for both occurrences. Their home of cricket is quickly becoming a fortress. Squaring an away series with Sri Lanka between times means they are a team that can never be underestimated again. Meanwhile, Australia’s Asian problem persists. Over the last 10 years, they have won two of 23 matches on the subcontinent. For all the progress made in India earlier in the year, this constitutes a significant setback. They have four days turn it around, the second and final Test of the series starting in Chittagong on Monday
