CYCLING

Tadej Pogacar claimed a third stage win as he sprinted away from Jonas Vingegaard in the punishing last climb of a grueling trek in the Pyrenees on Wednesday but failed to take significant time out of the Tour de France leader.

As so often in this year’s race, the pair were in a class of their own and were left fighting each other in the brutal final kilometer up to Peyragudes airstrip.

Once Pogacar’s teammate Brandon McNulty – who paced his leader throughout the day through punishing ascents with an impressive effort of pure dedication – got dropped, it was time for a final showdown in high altitude.

In the steep ramp leading to the finish, Pogacar accelerated with about 300 meters left. Vingegaard countered with ease but the two-time defending champion had the final say with a final kick that helped him surge ahead and cross first, with Vingegaard on his wheel.

With just one big mountain stage left and an individual time trial before the race reaches Paris on Sunday, Vingegaard looks set for his first Tour de France win.

But Pogacar still believes.

“I’m optimistic that I can still win the Tour,” the 23-year-old Slovenian said. “Tomorrow is a harder stage, so we can try again.”

Since his bad day in the Alps when he relinquished the yellow jersey to Vingegaard, Pogacar has been on the attack but has not managed to make up the time he lost to his rival.

The UAE-Emirates team has also been forced to cope with many withdrawals in his team. On Wednesday, Rafal Majka pulled out of the race just before the stage start because of a thigh injury. Pogacar had already seen his support unit reduced to four riders following the earlier withdrawals of George Bennett, Vegard Stake Laengen and Marc Soler.

“The way the team rode today with only four riders, just to take the stage win is already incredible,” Pogacar said. “We can all be proud of what we have done. Without Rafal, George, Vegard and Soler, we couldn’t try more. We’ll see tomorrow if there is another chance.”

Pogacar will have one last chance to unsettle the Jumbo-Visma team leader in the mountains during Thursday’s grueling final Pyrenean stage between Lourdes and Hautacam.

After that, his last occasion to turn the race upside down will be Saturday’s time trial, a discipline in which he has the upper hand on paper.

Pogacar’s hat-trick of stage wins this year took his career tally to nine.

Vingegaard was runner-up last year behind Pogacar. The Danish rider has been impressive since the start in Copenhagen and once again showed no sign of weakness during Wednesday’s tough ride featuring four big climbs.

McNulty completed the 80.8-mile stage podium, 32 seconds behind the pair.

With the time bonus awarded to the stage winner, Pogacar moved four seconds closer to Vingegaard, who now has an overall lead of 2 minutes, 18 seconds in the general classification. Geraint Thomas, the 2018 Tour champion, was dropped in the penultimate climb and lagged 4:56 behind in third place overall.

BASEBALL

MLB: Matt Pushard, a University of Maine pitcher from Brewer, signed with Miami as an undrafted free agent.

Pushard, a 6-foot-4 right-hander, was primarily a reliever for the Black Bears and finished his career with a 4-6 record, 13 saves and a 4.68 ERA. He pitched for Harwich in the Cape Cod League last summer and played for the Sanford Mainers of the New England Collegiate Baseball League in 2019.

NECBL: The Sanford Mainers scored four runs in the fourth inning with the help of an error to wipe out a two-run deficit, beating the visiting Upper Valley Nighthawks, 5-4.
David Bermudez added an RBI single in the seventh of the Mainers (17-20).

Ryan Ignoffo and Clay Stearns each had two hits for Upper Valley (16-20).

TRACK AND FIELD

COLLEGES: Nyagoa Bayak, a three-time NCAA high jump All-American from Westbrook, is transferring from LSU to USC, according to an announcement on USC track and field’s Twitter account.

Bayak earned All-America honors both indoors and outdoors in 2022, placing fourth indoors and tying for sixth place outdoors. She also was sixth at the 2021 indoor championships.

Bayak has two years of eligibility remaining.

WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: Caster Semenya finished 13th and failed to advance in the women’s 5,000 meters at Eugene, Oregon, an expected result for the South African who is barred from her best event because of rules that demand she take hormone-reducing drugs to enter certain races.

Semenya, who has two Olympic and three world titles in the 800 meters, has been kept out of that race in big events since 2019, after losing an appeal of a World Athletics regulation that made women with certain intersex condition ineligible for races of between 400 meters and one mile.

Semenya finished the 12 1/2-lap race, held on a blistering 91-degree afternoon, in 15 minutes, 46.12 seconds. That was 54 seconds behind the winner of the heat, Gudaf Tsegay of Ethiopia, and 53 seconds outside of the fifth and last automatic qualifying spot into the final.

HOCKEY

NHL: The Bruins reached back into their history to fill a vacancy on their coaching staff.

John Gruden, a 1990 eighth-round pick of the Bruins who played 59 games for Boston between 1993-96, was the first new hire of Jim Montgomery’s staff. The Bruins had a vacancy to fill with the departure of Kevin Dean, who was let go after last season and subsequently hired by the Chicago Blackhawks. Dean had run the defense during his tenure with the Bruins.

For the last four years, Gruden has been on the Barry Trotz’s New York Islanders’ staff.

Assistants Joe Sacco, Chris Kelly and goalie coach Bob Essensa all remain under contract for another year, though Sacco – a head coach in Colorado for four years before returning to his hometown as an assistant in 2014 – interviewed for the Bruins’ head coaching job. There is still a head coaching opening in San Jose, where Mike Grier – like Sacco, a Boston University product – has taken over as general manager.

The Bruins still have to fill the role of skills consultant after Kim Branvold left to take an assistant’s job at BU.

TENNIS

NATIONAL BANK OPEN: Seven-time Grand Slam champion Venus Williams was given a wild-card entry into the main draw at Toronto next month.

She will compete in Toronto for the first time since 2019 and return to WTA Tour singles play for the first time since August 2021.

The former world No. 1 and five-time Wimbledon champion last played when she partnered with Jamie Murray of Britain in Wimbledon’s mixed doubles draw earlier this month. Williams is a 41-time WTA singles champion and Olympic gold medalist.

Her sister, Serena Williams, also is playing in Toronto, marking her first North American hard-court event in two years.

U.S. OPEN: Serena Williams and Novak Djokovic were on the official U.S. Open entry lists, but that doesn’t mean they’ll necessarily play in the tournament – and in Djokovic’s case, he can’t, as of now, because he isn’t vaccinated against COVID-19.

The singles entry lists are a formality, and they include all players who are eligible based purely on this week’s WTA and ATP rankings. Williams is on there by virtue of a special ranking granted to her because she missed so much time due to injury; her first match in a year came last month at Wimbledon, where she lost in the first round to Harmony Tan.

Asked after that defeat whether she would play again, the 40-year-old Williams said she didn’t know. When she was asked specifically about returning to the U.S. Open, where she has won six of her 23 Grand Slam singles trophies, Williams replied: “There’s definitely lots of motivation to get better and to play at home.”

SOCCER

GERMANY: Hertha Berlin winger Marco Richter could be back in training next month after treatment for a testicular tumor, the German club said.

Hertha said the tumor was malignant but was caught early enough that it could be removed without chemotherapy.

Richter is one of three Bundesliga players undergoing treatment recently for testicular tumors, which can be benign and do not always lead to a diagnosis of cancer.

Borussia Dortmund striker Sebastien Haller left his new club’s preseason training camp Monday after a tumor was found in a medical examination, and Union Berlin defender Timo Baumgartl revealed his diagnosis in May and has been undergoing chemotherapy treatment.

ITALY: Jose Mourinho and Conference League champion Roma are stepping up their ambitions with the signing of former Juventus forward Paulo Dybala.

Three weeks after his contract expired at Juventus, the 28-year-old Argentina international agreed to a three-year deal at Roma, the capital club announced.

Dybala is Roma’s second high-profile signing during the transfer window after Nemanja Matic joined on a one-year deal after his contract at Manchester United also expired.

Dybala scored 115 goals across all competitions in seven seasons at Juventus, helping the Bianconeri to 12 trophies – including five Serie A titles. But the often-injured striker fell out of favor under Coach Massimiliano Allegri after the Turin club signed Dusan Vlahovic in January.

MLS: Forward Nicholas Gioacchini was acquired by Orlando from Caen in France’s second tier.

The 21-year-old agreed to a 2 1/2-year contract that includes a club option for 2025.

Born in Kansas City, Missouri, Gioacchini signed with the reserve team of Paris FC that played in French fifth tier. After playing for Paris in 2017-18, he spent two seasons with Caen’s B team in the fifth tier and moved to Caen’s senior team in 2019-20.

• Kleberson, a midfielder on Brazil’s 2002 World Cup champions, was hired by Major League Soccer’s New York City as an assistant coach.

Now 43, Kleberson made 32 appearances for Brazil from 2002-10 and was with Manchester United (2003-05) and Besiktas (2005-07) during a club career from 1999-2016.

He had been an assistant coach with Philadelphia Union II in MLS Next Pro.

FRANCE: France international Jonathan Clauss has signed a three-year deal with Marseille.

The nine-time French champions said the 29-year-old right-back, who joined from Lens in the wake of a tremendous season, underwent his medical.

MEDIA

ESPYS: South Carolina consensus player of the year Aliyah Boston turned down a late invitation to the ESPY awards show, saying the offer was even more hurtful than not being asked to attend.

Boston helped the Gamecocks win the NCAA title by defeating Connecticut in April. She swept the national awards as the game’s top player, including the Wooden and AP awards.

Boston, voted the Final Four’s Most Outstanding Player, had hoped to attend and was disappointed when not asked. “It hurt more to see ESPN change course and invite me only after social media caught wind of it,” Boston posted on Twitter. “Respectfully, I declined.”

Boston’s coach, Dawn Staley, highlighted the snub this week. Staley mused publicly on social media how the people who planned the ESPYS decided “it was a great idea not to invite” the woman who won several national awards as one of the best players in women’s college basketball last season.

“Not one person was able to see the uproar this would cause? There’s definitely something wrong with the make up of the room.”

In a statement, ESPN said COVID-19 concerns and a smaller venue forced organizers to prioritize invitees. Boston’s award category was handed out Tuesday night at the ESPYS preview show. Boston was nominated for “Best College Athlete, Women’s Sports,” an award that went to Oklahoma softball star Jocelyn Alo.

Boston said it’s just the latest example of overlooking a Black women’s achievements, which are brushed off as a ‘mistake’ or an `oversight.’

“Another excuse for why our milestones and accomplishments aren’t a `priority,’ this time, even now, 50 years after Title IX.”

BASKETBALL

WNBA: Allie Quigley scored 18 points, Emma Meesseman had 16 points, 10 rebounds and six assists and the Chicago Sky beat the visiting Seattle Storm 78-74 for their fifth straight victory.

Chicago (20-6) clinched a playoff spot with its 20th win of the season.

NBA: James Harden has agreed to terms on a two-year contract to stay with the Philadelphia 76ers and will make about $14.5 million less this coming season than he could have earned under his previous deal, a person with knowledge of the negotiations said.

Harden will sign a deal worth slightly over $68 million, paying him about $33 million this season and with a $35 million player option for the 2023-24 season, according to the person who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the team has not announced the deal.

ESPN first reported the agreement being finalized.

Harden had a $47.4 million option for this coming season that he declined last month, saying he wanted to give the 76ers flexibility to improve their roster and compete for a championship. Giving back that much money – Harden basically gave himself a 30% pay cut – allowed the 76ers to make moves such as signing power forward P.J. Tucker and small forward Danuel House earlier this month.

COLLEGES

FOOTBALL: Texas A&M receiver Ainias Smith was arrested on charges of driving while intoxicated, unlawful carrying of a weapon and possession of less than 2 ounces of marijuana, according to Brazos County jail records.

Smith, 21, was arrested by Texas A&M police and was booked into the Brazos County jail. He posted $8,000 bond and was released, according to jail records.

The records did not indicate if he had an attorney who could speak on his behalf.

Smith has been suspended from the football team per athletic department policy following his arrest, according to Alan Cannon, a spokesman for Texas A&M.

Cannon added that Coach Jimbo Fisher was aware of the situation and looking into it.

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