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MW 10 MAY 2017

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maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 10 MAY 2017 20 Sport SPORTTODAY CYCLING FOOTBALL Froome unhurt but bike 'totalled' after hit-and-run case TOUR de France champion Chris Froome said yester- day that he had escaped unhurt while having his bike written off by an impatient car driver in a hit-and-run incident. The 31-year-old three-time winner of the world's big- gest bike race, tweeted a picture of the twisted remains of his "totalled" training bike, saying he had been delib- erately knocked off by the driver. The Team Sky rider said he was "okay" after the inci- dent that happened during a training ride near his home in the south of France. Sky News reported that it understood Froome would be reporting the incident to police. "Just got rammed on purpose by an impatient driver who followed me onto the pavement! Thankfully I'm okay. Bike totalled. Driver kept going!", the Team Sky rider wrote, adding an emoji of hands clasped in prayer. Team Sky said the Monaco-based Froome had contin- ued his training session after returning home to get a spare bike. Froome is training for June's Criterium du Dauphine, his familiar warm-up event before the Tour de France between July 1-23. He is favourite to win the event for a third successive year. The incident was just another reminder of the contin- ued perils faced by professional cyclists on the road dur- ing training rides. It occurred less than three weeks since the death of 37-year-old Michele Scarponi, the former Giro d'Italia winner, who was struck by a van while training in Italy. His team, Astana, described the death of Scarponi, a husband and father of two, as a 'tragedy too big to be written'. Chris Froome, the Tour de France winner and Olympic medallist, said his bike was 'totalled' after the crash Wenger says exit from Champions League wouldn't harm contract talks ARSENAL manager Arsene Wenger on Tuesday said that fail- ure to qualify for next season's Champions League would not jeopardise contract negotiations with players. Arsenal's hopes of a top four Pre- mier League finish and a spot in Europe's elite competition depend on the teams above them slipping up during the final stages of the season. Sixth-placed Arsenal's 2-0 win over Manchester United on Sunday left them six points behind Man- chester city, albeit with a game in hand. If Arsenal stay out of the top four, it would be the first time the London club has failed to qualify for the Champions League in more than two decades under Wenger. "Maybe, it can impact if in a long- er spell you are not in there. But at the moment we are not in that mode," Wenger told reporters. "Because we are in a strong fi- nancial position. The weight of a Champions League place is less big than it was in previous years. Ne- gotiations-wise (for players) it will not have a huge impact." Wenger expressed regret that he had been unable to give striker Lu- cas Perez more games. Perez has scored eight times in 21 appear- ances for Arsenal since joining in August. "He is a top quality striker, I couldn't give him the games he wants and deserves and I feel sorry for him," Wenger said. "Don't take anything away from his quality. I would love to (keep him) if I am the manager but we have to sit down together and see if he has a reasonably chance to play or not." Defender Laurent Koscielny and midfielder Granit Xhaka are set to face late fitness tests before the trip to St. Mary's as they recover from recurring minor injuries.

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