Barring a crash, Jonas Vingegaard is likely to be wearing the yellow jersey when the Tour de France ends in Paris on Sunday.
Vingegaard responded to a series of attacks from defending champion Tadej Pogacar on Thursday and ultimately dropped his main rival in the last big mountain stage of this year’s race to increase his overall lead to three minutes, 26 seconds.
With only one big test left – 25.5-mile time trial scheduled for Saturday – the Jumbo-Visma leader from Denmark seems all but guaranteed to win his maiden Tour title after reaching the Hautacam resort on his own.
“It’s incredible. I told my girlfriend and daughter this morning that I wanted to win the stage for them. I’m happy and proud that I won for them,” Vingegaard said. “I need to stay focused and keep taking it day by day. I don’t want to talk about winning the Tour yet. Let’s talk about it in two days.”
Pogacar, the two-time defending champion, took all the risks and crashed on a downhill as he relentlessly tried to isolate Vingegaard. Back on his bike, Pogacar cracked about four kilometers from the finish in the final ascent, with his hopes of winning a third consecutive title all but dashed.
“I went all in for the yellow,” Pogacar said. “I did not give up, I pushed my limits and I’m proud of today. Today the best man won.”
Earlier in the day, four-time champion Chris Froome pulled out of the race after testing positive for COVID-19.
BASKETBALL
WNBA: Nneka Ogwumike scored 20 points on 9-of-11 shooting, Chiney Ogwumike had a season-high 15 points and the Los Angeles Sparks beat the visiting Atlanta Dream 85-78.
• Elena Delle Donne scored 25 points, Ariel Atkins added 16 points and the Washington Mystics beat visiting New York 78-69 to extend the Liberty’s losing streak to five games.
COLLEGES
FOOTBALL: Georgia’s Kirby Smart has agreed to a contract extension through the 2031 season, a 10-year agreement worth more than $110 million that makes him the latest coach to land the type of megadeal that is becoming increasingly common in college football.
Coming off a national championship season, Smart will be paid $10.25 million this season in base salary and supplemental compensation. He will receive raises each season, which lead to total compensation of $12.25 million in 2031.
HOCKEY
NHL: The Nashville Predators signed forward Nino Niederreiter to a two-year, $8 million deal on Thursday to join a team he helped Carolina beat in the first round of the playoffs in 2021.
Signing Niederreiter was the Predators’ biggest free agency move since keeping forward Filip Forsberg off the market just before it opened. General Manager David Poile also picked up defenseman Ryan McDonough from Tampa Bay via trade.
The 29-year-old Niederreiter had 44 points in 75 games with Carolina last season and ranked third on the Hurricanes with 24 goals. He has scored at least 25 points in nine of his 12 NHL seasons. The 6-foot-2, 218-pound forward also has played for the New York Islanders and Minnesota Wild, with 181 goals and 187 assists in 732 games.
• Pittsburgh avoided arbitration with forward Kasperi Kapanen, re-signing him to a two-year deal with an average annual value of $3.2 million.
TENNIS
HAMBURG OPEN: Top-seeded Carlos Alcaraz recovered from a slow start to beat Filip Krajinovic 7-6 (4), 6-3 and reach the quarterfinals in Hamburg, Germany, on Thursday as Francisco Cerundolo stunned Andrey Rublev 6-4, 6-2.
Alcaraz saved four set points down 4-5 in the first set before surging back to beat Krajinovic and improve to 21-2 on clay this season. The 19-year-old Spanish player meets Karen Khachanov for a spot in the semifinals after the Russian beat Fabio Fognini 6-3, 7-5.
Cerundolo, ranked 22 places below No. 8 Rublev, is on a seven-match winning streak after taking his first career tour title in Bastad, Sweden, last week. Cerundolo’s next opponent is another Russian – Aslan Karatsev, who won 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 against qualifier Daniel Elahi Galán.
In the women’s draw, top-seeded Anett Kontaveit reached the semifinals after Andrea Petkovic retired injured while Kontaveit was leading 6-0, 2-0. Petkovic suspected it was an adductor strain. Kontaveit will next play Anastasia Potapova, who upset 2021 French Open champion Barbora Krejcikova 6-1, 6-3. The other semifinal match pits Maryna Zanevska against American Bernarda Pera.
ATP: The ATP men’s tennis tour is canceling all four of its tournaments held in China this year, citing COVID-19 restrictions.
The Rolex Shanghai Masters, China Open, Chengdu Open and Zhuhai Championships were called off by the ATP on Thursday. It is the third consecutive year that the tour scrapped its China swing, which usually runs after the U.S. Open in September and October.
PALERMO LADIES OPEN: French teenager Diane Parry beat second-seeded Yulia Putintseva 6-3, 6-4 on Thursday to reach her first tour-level quarterfinal.
Also advancing on the red clay courts of the Country Time Club was local hope Lucia Bronzetti, who beat Elina Avanesyan 6-1, 6-3. Bronzetti will next face Caroline Garcia, who defeated Elisabetta Cocciaretto 0-6, 6-3, 6-4. Eighth-seeded Nuria Parrizas Diaz eliminated Julia Grabher 6-2, 6-4.
CLIMBING
MOUNTAINEERING: A Nepalese climber on Thursday set a new mountaineering record, after having scaled twice each of the 14 of the world’s highest mountains, a Pakistani mountaineering official said.
The announcement by Karrar Haidri, the chief official at the Pakistan Alpine Club, came hours after Sanu Sherpa, 47, scaled Gasherbrum 2 – the 13th highest mountain in the world at 26,362 feet in the Karakorum range in the western Himalayas.
SOCCER
WOMEN’S EURO 2022: Captain Alexandra Popp powered Germany past Austria 2-0 on Thursday to set up a semifinal match with either France or the Netherlands at the Women’s European Championship.
Germany showed lightning-quick reactions and smart thinking for the opening goal in the 25th minute, with Klara Bühl turning over possession on the left flank and cutting back a cross that Popp wisely left alone to allow teammate Lina Magull to score from a better position.
A surprise semifinalist at the last European Championship, Austria was tenacious in defense but frustrated in attack, hitting the post twice and the crossbar once.
Dangerous throughout the game, Popp sealed it for Germany in the 90th when she exploited goalkeeper Manuela Zinsberger’s rare lapse of concentration to charge down her attempted pass and send it into the net.
Eight-time European champion Germany moves into the semifinals of a major tournament for the first time since winning the Olympic gold medal in 2016, following quarterfinal exits at the last Euros in 2017 and the 2019 World Cup, and failing to qualify for last year’s Olympics.
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