Cycling
Modolo avoids Stage 5 crash; Martin leads Tour de Suisse
BUREN AN DER AARE, Switzerland – Sacha Modolo timed his sprint to perfection to win the fifth stage of the Tour de Suisse on Wednesday as Mark Cavendish was involved in a crash on the final corner.
Modolo and others avoided the crash just behind them, and the Italian cyclist edged out Peter Sagan on the line after racing for four hours.
John Degenkolb was third on the 114-mile leg from Ossingen to Buren an der Aare.
Tony Martin retained his six-second advantage over Dutch cyclist Tom Dumoulin, with Sagan 10 seconds behind the German.
Wiggins checks out of the Suisse with a leg injury
OSSINGEN, Switzerland – Bradley Wiggins withdrew from the Tour de Suisse with bruising and swelling in his right thigh, a day after crashing during the fourth stage.
Wiggins’ Sky Team doctor, Steve Baynes, said on the team website that the 2012 Tour de France champion’s injuries require treatment back in Britain.
Movistar moves on without Quintana for the Tour
MADRID – Movistar confirmed Giro d’Italia champion Nairo Quintana will skip the Tour de France.
Last year’s Tour runner-up wasn’t included in Movistar’s preliminary 13-man squad Wednesday. It will trim the squad to nine before the July 5-27 race.
The team stuck to its plan of reserving Quintana for the Spanish Vuelta despite the 24-year-old Colombian’s spectacular rise over the last two seasons.
The team picked Alejandro Valverde as its “designated leader.”
Golf
McIlroy chooses Ireland over Britain for the Olympics
CORK, Ireland – Rory McIlroy decided to play for Ireland, not Britain, at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
The 25-year-old McIlroy, who is from Northern Ireland, was eligible to play for Britain or Ireland and had been wrangling over the decision for more than a year.
Golf is returning to the Olympics in Rio for the first time since 1904.
NFL
Patent Office rules against Redskins’ trademark
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Patent Office ruled Wednesday that the Washington Redskins nickname is “disparaging of Native Americans” and that the team’s federal trademarks for the name must be canceled.
The 2-1 ruling comes after a campaign to change the name has gained momentum over the last year. The team doesn’t immediately lose trademark protection and is allowed to retain it during an appeal.
Tennis
Djokovic and Serena Williams seeded No. 1 at Wimbledon
LONDON – Novak Djokovic and Serena Williams were seeded No. 1 for Wimbledon on Wednesday, while defending men’s champion Andy Murray was bumped up two spots above his world ranking to No. 3.
Djokovic, the 2011 Wimbledon champion, is ranked No. 2 but was given the top seeding by the All England Club ahead of top-ranked Rafael Nadal.
Nadal, a two-time Wimbledon champion who is coming off his ninth French Open title, is seeded No. 2 for the grass-court Grand Slam, which will start Monday.
Murray last year became the first British player to win the Wimbledon men’s title since 1936.
Seven-time champion Roger Federer is No. 4, while Australian Open winner Stan Wawrinka is down two spots from his world ranking at No. 5.
Wimbledon takes a player’s grass-court record into account in assigning the men’s seedings; the women’s seedings, however, stick to the WTA rankings.
That means five-time champion Williams is No. 1, followed by Li Na, French Open runner-up Simona Halep, Agnieszka Radwanska and Maria Sharapova.
Associated Press
