Daily Sports News

There was an escape in the early minutes of the 10th stage and for most of the race they stayed ahead by 150 seconds but were finely caught by the sprinters as the wonder by Mark Cavendish crossed the line in Issoudun. Thor Hushovd tried his best but the Colombia boys were as usually on the top and made sure there sprinter took the victory. Even though Hushovd lost but he still leads the green jersey points table at 147 points with Cavendish following him at second with 141 points.

Benoit Vaugrenard, Samuel Dumoulin, Thierry Hupond and Mikhail Ignatiev were part of the breakaway and could only hold with 1400 meters to the end. The train formed by Colombia caught the three Russians just 1900 to the finish and Mikhail Ignatiev was caught in the end with just 1400 meters to finish. For a change team Astana did not do any hard work and did not take part in the chase, maybe this was a way to show the tour officials a sign of protest against the banning of the radio contact.

The stage was a 194.5 kilometers from Limoges to Issoudun and was slow as it was just after a rest day and also one with banned radio contact between riders and the team cars. The stage had there category four climbs cote de Salvanet at 12.5 kilometers, cote de Saint-Laurent-les-Eglise at 27.5 kilometers and the cote de Benevent-L’Abbaye at 58.5 kilometers. The stage also had three sprints which were dispersed evenly. The three sprints were at Lauriere at 44 kilometers, Aigurande at 122.5 kilometers and Saint-Aout at 167.5kilometers.

As Webber took the checkered flag at the German Grand Prix his race engineer said on the radio to him “Mark Webber you are a Grand Prix winner. Well done! Brilliant drive!“. He started his race on a pole but his chances of winning were almost ruled after a drive through penalty that was imposed on him due to a brush off at the start of the race with Brwan driver Barrichello. But the mountain gods at the Nurburgring were surely in favor of the Australian and he won the race in style. This is his first race win in his long Formula 1 career with 133 races which started with Minardi in 2002.

A re-fuelling rig problem forced Ruben Barrichello out of the podium contention and also pushed him down in the order. Sunday’s race also saw Sebastian Vettel finish a strong second behind his team mate. This is the third time during the season when the top two positions have been taken by the Red Bull team.

A big disappointment for the day was Force India driver Adrian Sutil, who came close to taking the first points of the season for his team. He did and excellent qualifying on Saturday but missed out on Sunday after Kimmi took his front wing out and closed all doors for the Force India team.

ix After German Grand Prix the champion ship remains quite open and all the four can attack for the season reward. Button leads the championship with 68 points followed by Vettel is second with 47 points, Webber third with 45.5 points and Barrichello slips to fourth and is on 44 points.

Webber took his maiden career pole position after a fascinating last minute shootout which saw a fierce battle between the Aussie, team make Vettel, the two Brawns and McLaren’s Hamilton. The first charge for the pole came from Hamilton but was soon pushed down by Button, but in the end its was Webber’s day when he took the pole with an excellent qualifying lap at 1 minute and 32.230 seconds. A last minute charge saw Vettel temporarily taking the second spot with a qualifying time of 1 minute 32.480 second but was soon pushed down by Button with a time of 1 minute 32.473 seconds. The last charge for qualifying for the pole came from Brazilian Barrichello clocking 1 minute 32.357 taking the second and pushing his team mate to the third place.

The qualifing also had some cheer for McLaren as both there cars qualified in the Top ten after a long time with Heikki Kovalainen qualifying sixth behind team mate Lewis with a timing of 1 minute 33.859 seconds.

Force India driver Adrian Sutil threw a major surprise when he qualified seventh on his home circuit as he drove an aggressive qualifying lap clocking 1 minute 34.316 seconds. There was a word around that Force India were expecting some improvement in there performance but nobody expected such a shocker. Last years winning team Ferrari must be disappointed with their performance as Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen are placed at eighth and ninth with a qualifying time of 1 minute 34.574 second and 1 minute 34.710 seconds respectively. Renault’s Nelson Piquet finished his qualifying at the tenth place with a time of 1 minute 34.803 seconds.

The weather gods also threw a surprise at the Nurburgring in the Q2 and created a huge confusion. Two drivers (Nakajima and Massa) went off the road as they were using the slick tyre’s. if that was not enough to give everyone a sign of caution, Kovalainen spun and banged the wall in Turn Four but managed to continue.

Phelps is back with a large bang, some doubted after him being in news for all different reasons but he broke the world record in the men’s 100 meters butterfly event at the US Swimming Championships. Phelps has been a bit furious when it comes to the 100 meters butterfly as fellow countrymen Ian Crocker had beaten him by over a second in the same event where Ian created the world record in 2005.

Phelps has been an inspiration having won 14 career Olympic gold medals and also holds world record in five individual disciplines including the men’s 100 meters butterfly, the men’s 200 meters butterfly, the men’s 200 meters freestyle, the men’s 200 meters individual medley and the men’s 400 meters individual medley. He was also instrumental taking his teams to three world records in the relay events. No other swimmer in the world holds more then two records.

It seemed like Phelps had been looking for this record for a while, he touched the wall and turned towards the scoreboard anxiously whipping the water of his swimming goggles. He pulled of his twin swimming caps and defiantly stared at his time. He took almost 15 second before he smiled as he knew that he had finally grabbed the much awaited record.

The night was also amazing for another swimmer. Dara Torres at an age of 42 made it to the world championships team by winning the 50 meters freestyle even with a time of 24.43 seconds. Its good to see a swimmer qualify for world championships at the age of 42 but she also knows that the qualifying time is not good enough to win a medal at the world championships.

Yellow jersey is not a new achievement for Thomas Voeckler (Bbox Bouygues Telecom) but Wednesday’s victory got tears in his eyes, as he shook his head and looked behind the charging sprinter and crossed the finish line to add another Tour de France stage victory to his name.

The stage 5 between Le Cap d’Agde to Perpignan had a distance of 196.5 km and 178 riders started the race. Piet Rooijakkers (Skil-Shimano) had to withdraw due to his crash in team time trial stage 4. Stage 5 consisted of two category-4 climbs (the col de Feuilla at 112.5 km and the cote de Treilles at 116.5 km) and three sprints (Capestang at 40.5 km, Saint-Jean-de-Barrou at 107.5 km and Canet-en-Roussillon at 158.5 km)

The first failed attack came from a Lampre team member but was quickly caught by the peloton. The next attack was at the 6 km mark by Beppy of Skil-Shimano team and was joined by Voeckler (Bbox Bouygues Telecom), Geslin (Francaise Des Jeux) and Sapa (Lampre – N.G.C). At the 12 km Mark Ignatiev (Team Katusha), Timmer (Skil-Shimano) and Hutarovich (Francaise Des Jeux) launched the next attack and joined the leaders at the 23 km mark they joined the leaders. When the leaders reached the 40 km mark the lead had increased to 9 minutes and 35 seconds. The first sprint was won by Geslin and Hutarovich came in a second place. We the race reached the cost there was lot of fight for position which was one of the reasons for accidents. The first crash was Staf Scheirlinckx (Silence – Lotto) and Stéphane Auge (Cofidis Le Credit En Ligne) at the 106 km mark and just one km after that was Matthew Lloyd (Silence – Lotto) turn. The worst crash was at the 120 km mark when Rabobank rider Robert Gesink fell in a gutter on the left side of the road. At this time the peloton split into 4 groups dude to aggressive riding by Fabian  Cancellara, Andy Schleck and the Saxo Bank team.

In the last part of the race just 22 km from finish all the three trailing groups had joined the yellow jersey group. What can be said that the sprinter teams did not calculate which helped the break away group. At the 15 km mark the sprinter teams started an aggressive chase lead by teams like Garmin – Slipstream, Agritubel and Team Columbia – HTC but it was too late as the breakaway held to their advantage. With 5 km left to finish, Thomas Voeckler launched an all out attack which at the end of the day was he move resulting in a stage victory. Mark Ignatiev finished ahead of the peloton at second place. The late charge from the peloton was lead by Mark Cavendish who finished third and got some consolation points and gets to carry on the green jersey. Fabian Cancellara can just think his lucky stars and will get to wear the yellow jersey for another day.

Team Astana continued there amazing run and is probable favorites to be the no.1 team at the end of the race.

It was like visiting history, Armstrong has done it in the past and almost did it in the time trial stage again. US Postal and Discovery were lead by Lance to achieve the amazing team time trial results and he did it again with Astana. I guess but the gods were with Fabian Cancellara as he retained the yellow with just two tenth of a second separating him and Armstrong. The stage also witnessed an excellent finish by Garmin – Slipstream who lost the four riders in the first half of the race. But its was the relentless pace that Garmin – Slipstream delivered and increased the tempo for the day, the remaining five riders – Bradley Wiggins, David Millar, David Zabriskie, Christian Vande Velde and Ryder Hesjedal delivered an excellent time taking them to a second place in the stage.

The Schleck brothers lead team Saxo Bank finished third and are now places second in the race behind Astana. The stage also witnessed Team a not so good performance by Team Colombia-HTC which was pushed to a fifth place by Team Liquigas. The stage was a big disappointment for Cadel Evans of Team Silence – Lotto and RABOBANK rider Denis Menchov as the poor result in the team time trial pushed them down in the overall ranking. Team Silence – Lotto finished a below par at the 13th sport, 6 minutes and 51 seconds behind the leader and Rabobank took the 11th position. Another disappoint of the day was defending champion Carlos Sastre who after a poor at stage 1 time trial slipped further down as his team finished sixth.

The day truly belonged to the excellent time trial by Astana with excellent riding has place five of there rider in the top ten. Armstrong, Contadorm, Kloden, Leipheimer and Zubeldia are in the top ten which is a clear sign how this team has eclipsed the race results so far.

There were no changes in the green, white and polka dot jersey standings. Stage five has two category 4 climbs and one might see some aggression and also a change in few positions.

Mark Cavendish added another feather in his cap by winning the third stage of Tour de France. Cavendish finished ahead of Cervelo Test rider Thor Hushovd and Skil-Shimano rider Cyril Lemoine taking the third place. The Saxo Bank rider Fabian Cancellara managed to retain his overall lead and also the yellow jersey. Cavendish impressive effort made sure he retained the green jersey.

Stage 3 which was from Marseille to La Grande-Motte and had a total distance of 196.5 km was considered a rather flat stage but there were a few short climbs. The factor governing the race was the strong winds. Just 30 km to the finish Team Columbia HTC took advantage of the strong winds and created a breakaway from the peleton and the gap increased as much as 39 seconds. The breakaway also had the comeback man Lance Armstrong with the Astana team managed to be a part of the breakaway and improved his position from 10th to 3rd on the third day of the tour. Team Astana is now the leading team in the race and also a sure favorite to make the most out of the day four team time trial stage. As the breakaway started, there was a panic in the peleton as it could change some of the key player positions and could decide the future of the race itself.

The climber of the day went to Jussi Veikkanen of team Francaise Des Jeux and young rider white jersey went to Martin Tony of Team Columbia – HTC.

Team Astana is the current leader followed Team Columbia HTC and Team Saxo Bank in the tour after stage 3. Team Astana looks really strong and have four riders in the top ten. If things go rite for them then the yellow jersey could change hand and be with the Legend of cycling Lance Armstrong after the team trial.

Pete Sampras was a part of the audience that watched the Magician Federer create history by winning the men’s title at Wimbledon and also beating Pete’s record of 14 men’s grand slam titles. Now Federer has 15 titles and has there is no doubt left on who is the greatest player in men’s tennis history. In a post match interview Pete complimented Federer saying he was the greatest tennis player of all times and he has surpassed me and he is still playing, so will win more titles.

Some of the greatest legends of the game watched Federer when he created this amazing record including Rod Laver, Bjorn Borg and Pete Sampras. It was not an easy ride though as Federer had fight a five set epic against Andy Roddick. The match was a grueling marathon as both battled in the deciding fifth set which in the end was won by Federer 16-14. It took Federer 4 hr, 16 min to reach the milestone. Federer had to hit the highest number of aces in any match in his career -50 to win the epic battle, just one short of the Croatian Ivo Karlovic record of 51.

Even though Federer won the title but there were also praises for Andy Roddick as he also gave an excellent fight. Federer is now placed third with six Wimbledon men’s singles titles just behind Sampras and William Renshaw who have won seven each.

With this win Federer also climbed back to the No.1 spot on the ATP Ranking, he had lost the spot to Rafael Nadal last august. Nadal missed the tournament due to a knee injury. After last year loss to Nadal in the Wimbledon and also this year loss at Australian open, people doubted if Federer could take back the No.1 spot, but a win in the French Open and the All England victory certainly makes his look much stronger then ever.

Roddick in a post match interview praised Federer of being a true champion and also felt sorry for Sampras as he could not stop Federer from beating his record.

What I can just say is – The Magician has now engraved his name in the Tennis Hall of Fame list and would be a role model for generation’s tennis players to follow. One can debate who is the greatest in the game, but he has capture more hearts then any others in the past.