Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/345566
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 13 JULY 2014 50 Sport TOUR DE FRANCE Kadri into polka dots after soloing to win Vincenzo Nibali extended his overall lead of the Tour de France as breakaway rider Blel Kadri climbed to a fine solo victory on stage eight at Gerardmer La Mauselaine KADRI formed part of the day's five-man escape group but moved into a lone lead on the first of three late climbs and held off the chasing peloton to win by 2min 17sec. Alberto Contador finished second on the day after proving the strong- est of the contenders for overall victory on the 1.8km final ascent to the finish, but Nibali crossed the line only three seconds later in third. The Italian now has a 1min 44sec lead after second-placed Jakob Fuglsang, his Astana team-mate, was dropped on the second climb, while Team Sky's Richie Porte rises to third overall, 1min 58sec back, having finished fourth on the day. Contador is now sixth, 2min 34sec back. Britain's Simon Yates was also in the day's breakaway and although it looked like he could challenge for the stage win with 40km to go, he couldn't follow Kadri and was eventually caught by the pack with around 1km remaining. The only other Briton in the race, Geraint Thomas, also fell away in the finale after being caught up in a crash, leading him to lose around a minute and a half on the general classification favourites. Kadri, who claimed his first Tour stage win and the biggest victory of his career, said: "I am really happy. It's an amazing feeling. I told my team I wanted to go for it. It's a day that suited me and I am delighted. It was tricky to take the chance so early, but I had to do it." The stage was relatively short, at 161km, but three categorised climbs in the final 30km offered scope for small gaps to emerge between the general classification contenders. Kadri (Ag2r-La Mondiale) and Yates (Orica-GreenEdge) were joined by Niki Terpstra (Omega Pharma – Quick-Step), Sylvain Chavanel (IAM Cycling) and Adr- ien Petit (Cofidis) in the breakaway and when the quintet opened up a lead of over 11 minutes, it looked certain they would fight for stage honours between themselves. However, thanks to an injection of pace by Tinkoff-Saxo, the gap plummeted to six minutes with 25km remaining, prompting Cha- vanel to attack at the foot of the first climb, the Col de la Croix des Moinats, with Kadri the only man who could follow. The 27-year-old then left his fellow Frenchman behind with 22.5km remaining and managed to consolidate his lead over a rain- soaked final two climbs to secure a famous win. Back in the peloton, the general classification favourites stayed to- gether over the first two climbs, but then Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo) ac- celerated at the foot of short ascent to Gerardmer La Mauselaine, and while Nibali and Porte could just about keep up, Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) and Jurgen van den Br- oeck (Lotto Belisol) were dropped and lost time. Stage eight result 1 Blel Kadri (Fra) Ag2r-La Mondiale, 3:49:28 2 Alberto Contador (Spa) Tinkoff-Saxo, +2:17 3 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Astana, +2:20 4 Richie Porte (Aus) Team Sky, +2:24 5 Thibaut Pinot (Fra) FDJ.fr, +2:28 6 Jean-Christophe Peraud (Fra) Ag2r-La Mondiale, +2:28 7 Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar, +2:36 8 Tejay Van Garderen (USA) BMC Racing, +2:40 9 Romain Bardet (Fra) Ag2r-La Mondiale, +2:48 10 Sylvain Chavanel (Fra) IAM Cycling, +2:54 General classification 1 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Astana, 33:48:52 2 Jakob Fuglsang (Den) Astana, +1:44 3 Richie Porte (Aus) Team Sky, +1:58 4 Michal Kwiatkowski (Pol) Omega Pharma - Quick-Step, +2:26 5 Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar, +2:27 6 Alberto Contador (Spa) Tinkoff-Saxo, +2:34 7 Romain Bardet (Fra) Ag2r-La Mondiale, +2:39 8 Rui Costa (Por) Lampre-Merida, +2:52 9 Bauke Mollema (Ned) Belkin, +3:02 10 Jurgen Van den Broeck (Bel) Lotto Belisol, +3:02 Kadri into polka dots after soloing to win BOXING Mayweather announces Maidana rematch Floyd Mayweather has announced that he will fight Marcos Maidana in a rematch on September 13 in Las Vegas THE undefeated American suc- cessfully defended his WBC welterweight title while taking Maidana's WBA strap in their first fight in May, but it was a tighter contest than many ex- pected with the Argentinian giving Mayweather one of his toughest professional tests. Britain's Amir Khan beat Luis Collazo on the undercard of that bout and instantly set his sights on taking on Mayweather, but the Bolton fighter will have to wait a little longer after Maidana was handed a second shot on Septem- ber 13 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. It is believed that Golden Boy Promotions are promoting the fight. Maidana, 30, surprised many in Las Vegas in May with one judge having the first fight level at 114-114 while the other two scores were 117-111 and 116-112 in Mayweather's favour. And the 37-year-old Michigan native confirmed straight after that bout that he was open to fac- ing Maidana again. "This was a tough, competitive fight," he said. "Normally when I fight I box and move. This was a tough fight. I wanted to fight. "If the fans want to see it again, we will do it again." Mayweather has won all 46 of his professional bouts so far, while Maidana carries a record of 31 wins and four losses - one of those coming against Khan. Maidana (l) pushed Mayweather hard in their first fight in May