Cycling
LA CHAUX-DE-FONDS, Switzerland – Jon Izagirre of Spain won a chilly, rain-swept prologue of the six-day Tour of Romandie on Tuesday.
Izagirre was six seconds faster than Tom Dumoulin of the Netherlands on a 2.5-mile route around the watch-making town of La Chaux-de-Fonds.
Former road race world champion Michal Kwiatkowski of Poland was third, trailing seven seconds behind Movistar rider Izagirre.
Romandie has been a good guide to the Tour de France in recent years with Chris Froome, Bradley Wiggins and Cadel Evans all winning here before taking the sport’s biggest prize in July.
MLB
CHICAGO – Jake Arrieta said it is “flattering” that “some of the best players in the game” are spreading rumors that Arrieta is using performance-enhancing drugs.
The National League Cy Young Award winner and Chicago Cubs ace didn’t name names Tuesday but says his teammates have heard rumors from other players that the right-hander has used PEDs to fuel his emergence with the Cubs. As manager Joe Maddon says “we’ve all become suspicious” in baseball.
Arrieta went from hyped prospect to disappointing big leaguer while with the Orioles but has transformed into one of the game’s best pitchers since a trade to Chicago in 2013. He has two no-hitters in his last 11 regular season starts, including last week against Cincinnati.
Arrieta says he’s thrown up to 98 mph for years and has “always been in good shape,” adding that he “just (stunk) early in my career.”
NBA
OAKLAND, Calif. – Steve Kerr is the NBA’s coach of the year after leading to the Golden State Warriors to the best regular season record in league history.
Kerr got 64 first-place votes from the panel of 130 media members who regularly cover the league. Portland’s Terry Stotts was second in relatively close voting. San Antonio’s Gregg Popovich was third.
Kerr missed the Warriors’ first 43 games this season while recovering from back surgeries, with the team being operated in his absence by assistant coach Luke Walton. Voters took notice of Walton’s work as well; he finished tied for eighth in the balloting.
Soccer
WARRINGTON, England – A jury has found that 96 soccer fans were “unlawfully killed” in the 1989 Hillsborough Stadium disaster because of mistakes by the police.
The verdicts mark the conclusion of inquests that lasted more than two years into Britain’s worst sporting disaster.
The original verdicts of accidental death were overturned in 2012, and a new inquest was ordered after years of campaigning by the victims’ families.
The jury also found that police planning errors “caused or contributed” to the situation that led to the crush at the April 1989 FA Cup semifinal match between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest at the stadium in Sheffield.
Television
BRISTOL, Conn. – Commentator Skip Bayless is leaving ESPN when his contract is up at the end of August.
Bayless joined ESPN in 2004 as a writer and TV commentator. He raised his profile trading inflammatory opinions with Stephen A. Smith on the daily studio show “First Take.”
Associated Press
