Cycling
Tour de France champion the headliner for the USA Pro
DENVER – Tour de France champion Chris Froome of Sky Procycling and points jersey winner Peter Sagan of Cannondale Pro Cycling will headline the field for the USA Pro Challenge.
The provisional start list for the race was announced Wednesday.
Froome will make his first appearance in the Colorado stage race Aug. 19 in Aspen, when he returns to the bike after his win in cycling’s showcase event. Froome will be joined on the Sky team by Richie Porte, who helped pace him in the mountains of France.
BMC Racing Team will be led by Tejay van Garderen. Fellow American Taylor Phinney will remain in Europe to race. Phinney won the USA Pro Challenge time trial last year.
Other prominent riders include former Tour champion Andy Schleck, David Millar and Christian Vande Velde of U.S.-based Team Garmin-Sharp and German Jens Voigt.
The seven-stage race will end Aug. 25 in Denver.
Matthews and Van Avermaet flip flop Day 2 in Utah
TORREY, Utah – Australia’s Michael Matthews won the second stage of the Tour of Utah on Wednesday to take the overall lead in the six-stage race.
Matthews, riding for Orica GreenEdge, edged Belgium’s Greg Van Avermaet by a bike-length a day after finishing second behind the BMC rider in the first stage.
Matthews had a one-second lead over Van Avermaet in the overall standings.
The lead group finished the 131-mile stage that started in Panguitch in 5 hours, 17 minutes, 56 seconds.
MLB
Union officially files appeal of A-Rod’s 221-game penalty
CHICAGO – The Major League Baseball Players Association formally appealed Alex Rodriguez’s 211-game suspension.
The New York Yankees slugger was suspended through the 2014 season Monday when the league penalized 13 players after an investigation into Biogenesis of America, a shuttled Florida anti-aging clinic accused of distributing banned performance-enhancing drugs.
The other 12 players accepted 50-game suspensions, but Rodriguez said he planned to fight. Union head Michael Weiner said the punishment for the third baseman was “way out of line.”
Rodriguez is allowed to keep playing until Wednesday’s grievance is heard by arbitrator Fredric Horowitz, who isn’t expected to rule until November or December at the earliest.
NBA
Oden will reintroduce himself to the NBA with Miami
MIAMI – Greg Oden took his physical, did a bit of house hunting in South Florida and signed on the dotted line. Nearly four years after he last played, he’s officially back in the NBA.
The former No. 1 overall pick signed his contract with the two-time defending NBA champion Miami Heat on Wednesday, the last in a series of formalities that needed to be completed before the team finally could announce the move. Oden announced late last week that he was accepting Miami’s offer, one that will pay him about $1 million this coming year and includes a $1.1 million player option for the 2014-15 season.
Soccer
Ronaldo’s 2 goals lift Real Madrid to title
MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. – Cristiano Ronaldo scored a pair of dazzling goals, lifting Real Madrid to a 3-1 victory over Chelsea in the final of the Guinness International Champions Cup on Wednesday night.
Marcelo Vieira also scored for Real Madrid, which became the event’s inaugural champion by topping a Chelsea club now coached by Jose Mourinho. He left Real Madrid earlier this year for a return to Chelsea.
Third: AC Milan 2, Los Angeles Galaxy 0.
Fifth: Valencia 1, Everton 0.
Seventh: Inter Milan 1, Juventus 1, Inter Milan won 9-8 in penalty kicks.
Associated Press
