Cycling
Betancur wins Stage 5 as Thomas leads Paris-Nice
RIVE-DE-GIER, France – Carlos Betancur of Colombia won the fifth stage of the Paris-Nice race Thursday in a sprint to the line, while British rider Geraint Thomas retained the overall lead.
After the last of the stage’s four small climbs, three riders pulled away near the end, and Betancur easily beat Luxembourg rider Bob Jungels in a dash to the line.
Jakob Fuglsang of Denmark finished third, with all three given the same time of 3 hours, 38 minutes, 15 seconds over the 95 miles from Creches-sur-Saone to Rive-de-Gier.
In the overall standings, Thomas is three seconds ahead of German rider John Degenkolb, four ahead of Tom Jelte Slagter of the Netherlands and five clear of Betancur.
Pelucchi sprints to stage win at Tirreno-Adriatico
CASCINA, Italy – Matteo Pelucchi timed his sprint perfectly to win the second stage of the weeklong Tirreno-Adriatico on Thursday, and Mark Cavendish retained the overall lead.
Pelucchi edged Arnaud Demare and Andre Greipel after making his move 100 meters from the end of the 103-mile leg from San Vincenzo to Cascina for the biggest win of his career.
Cavendish finished a disappointing 17th but remains in the overall lead.
Golf
Four players tied for the lead at Valspar Championship
PALM HARBOR, Fla. – Matt Every made the best of the worst conditions Thursday and wound up in a four-way tie for the lead in the Valspar Championship.
Greg Chalmers, Danny Lee and Pat Perez played in warmer weather in the afternoon and joined Every atop the leaderboard at 3-under 68.
Only three players broke 70 in the morning; eight others broke 70 in the afternoon.
Justin Rose, the highest-ranked player in the field at No. 7, opened with a 71.
World Cup Skiing
Svindal slumps in super-G as Hirscher skis toward a title
LENZERHEIDE, Switzerland – Aksel Lund Svindal all but conceded the overall World Cup title to Marcel Hirscher on Thursday after failing to score points in a super-G surprisingly won by Alexis Pinturault of France.
Hirscher placed 12th in a rare super-G start as Svindal – who already won the season-long discipline title – finished 16th, trailing 2.16 seconds behind Pinturault.
Hirscher, the two-time defending overall champion, earned 22 points and now trails Svindal by only 19 with his best events to come this weekend.
Svindal will race the GS but skip the slalom Sunday.
Pinturault mostly skips super-G but won in 1 minute, 13.71 seconds to beat Mermillod Blondin by 0.56.
Bode Miller of the United States was a further one-hundredth back in third, repeating his bronze-medal placing in super-G at the Sochi Olympics.
Ted Ligety of the United States was fifth, following up his runner-up spot in Wednesday’s World Cup downhill.
Fenninger wins the overall World Cup championship
LENZERHEIDE, Switzerland – On a great day for ski-crazy Austria, Anna Fenninger won her first overall Alpine World Cup title, while Marcel Hirscher took a huge step toward his third.
Austria can complete its first title double since 2002 when the season-ending slalom and giant slalom – Hirscher’s strongest events – are raced this weekend.
That leaves the nation time to savor Fenninger’s success, after her second-place finish behind super-G winner Lara Gut built an unassailable points lead over her Swiss friend.
Gut finished in 1 minute, 17.14 seconds, 0.61 faster on the sunbathed course. Tina Maze of Slovenia, the defending overall champion, trailed Gut by 0.95 in third.
Gut’s victory, her second in a row after the downhill, clinched the season-long super-G title and a first career World Cup trophy for the 22-year-old racer.
Associated Press
