Cycling-German Denz solos to Giro stage 18 win
Cycling - Giro d'Italia - Stage 18 - Morbegno to Cesano Maderno - Italy - May 29, 2025 Red Bull - BORA - Hansgrohe's Nico Denz celebrates as he crosses the finish line to win stage 18 REUTERS/Jennifer Lorenzini
(Reuters) - Nico Denz won stage 18 of the Giro d'Italia on Thursday as the German rider rode solo to victory in the final stages of the 144 km ride from Morbegno to Cesano Maderno while overall leader Isaac del Toro retained his pink jersey.
In the shortest racing stage of this year's Giro, Denz was part of a breakaway group of 11 riders and the Red Bull–Bora–Hansgrohe rider attacked with 11km to go on the final flat section of the stage.
The 31-year-old held a 32-second lead with five kilometres left and by the time he crossed the finish line with his arms outstretched, he had finished a minute ahead of the chasing pack for the third Giro stage win of his career.
Victory allowed the team to celebrate a first stage win at this year's Giro after they had seen pre-race favourite Primoz Roglic abandon the race on Tuesday following a crash in treacherous conditions in stage 16.
Team Polti's Mirco Maestri finished second after beating Edward Planckaert of Alpecin-Deceuninck in the sprint.
(Reporting by Rohith Nair in Bengaluru, editing by Ed Osmond)
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Star
2 hours ago
- The Star
Soccer-Promoted Cologne appoint Kwasniok as manager
Soccer Football - 2. Bundesliga - FC Cologne v Kaiserslautern - RheinEnergieStadion, Cologne, Germany - May 18, 2025 FC Cologne players celebrate winning the 2. Bundesliga trophy REUTERS/Leon Kuegeler (Reuters) - Cologne have appointed Lukas Kwasniok as their new manager, the newly-promoted Bundesliga club said on Friday, with the Polish born 43-year-old signing a three-year contract. Kwasniok managed German second-tier side Paderborn for the past four seasons, narrowly missing out on promotion in his final campaign when finishing fourth in the standings, while Cologne won the division. "Over several years in Paderborn, he has impressively shown that he can develop a team, play attractive and successful football and promote young players to a higher level," Cologne Sporting Director Thomas Kessler said in a club statement. Gerhard Struber was Cologne manager last season until his dismissal, along with Sporting Director Christian Keller, with just two games remaining after the club slipped to second spot and their automatic promotion was at risk. Cologne appointed Friedhelm Funkel until the end of the season, who won the final two matches to clinch top spot in his third spell at the club, but have now opted to go with Kwasniok whose playing career in Germany was cut short by injury. (Reporting by Trevor Stynes; Editing by Christian Radnedge)
The Star
3 hours ago
- The Star
Bosnia's women rugby pioneers target Olympic qualification
Members of female section of the rugby club Celik prepare for training with the hope that they will soon be ready to compete in regional and international competitions, with the ultimate goal of participating in the 2032 Brisbane Olympics, in Zenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina, June 4, 2025. REUTERS/Amel Emric ZENICA, Bosnia (Reuters) -Erna Huseinovic fell in love with rugby after coaching young children at a local club in the central town of Zenica, the home of Bosnia's first women's rugby sevens team. A speedy winger, Huseinovic is preparing with her teammates for their first international competition in Croatia in September. "I found in rugby something that I did not find in other sports," said Huseinovic, a 25-year-old student at the Zenica faculty for sports. "The goal of my team is to achieve success in regional competitions and qualify for the 2032 Olympic Games," she said. Rugby has been played for 50 years in Zenica, and Celik, regular winners of rugby championships in the former Yugoslavia,established the first women's team last year after a previous attempt had failed during the COVID-19 pandemic. "Our goal is to form women's teams in several cities across Bosnia so they can compete in domestic and international competitions," said Mirza Oruc, a vice-president of Bosnia's rugby association and coach of the national women's team. "We want to compete in rugby sevens and qualify for the Brisbane Olympic Games," Oruc told Reuters, adding that sevens was a version of rugby helping to break stereotypes about the tough sport being exclusively for men. Sara Hadzic, 25, heard about rugby at Zenica university, where she studies German language and literature. "I wanted to try something new and different, to meet new girlfriends," said Hadzic, who did karate as a child. "I am playing now recreationally but I might go professional in the future." The mothers of several children training at the Celik club decided to try out the sports themselves. "Rugby is love, friendship, socializing, family," said Brankica Sekerovic. "I have come to the club as a supporter during tournaments and met some wonderful mums ... and then came a love for rugby." (Reporting by Amel Emric and Daria Sito-Sucic, editing by Ed Osmond)
The Star
a day ago
- The Star
Motor racing-Wheatley confident Audi will be winners in F1
FILE PHOTO: Formula One F1 - Emilia Romagna Grand Prix - Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari, Imola, Italy - May 18, 2025 Sauber team principal Jonathan Wheatley arrives ahead of the race REUTERS/Jakub Porzycki/File Photo (Reuters) -Timing is everything in Formula One and Jonathan Wheatley reckons he got his right in leaving Red Bull, the team with the most race wins and drivers' titles this century, to become principal of Sauber. The Swiss-based team will become the Audi works outfit from next season but were at the bottom of the standings until Nico Hulkenberg's fifth place in Spain last Sunday raised them two places to eighth. Sauber have won only once since 1993 -- in 2008 when owned by BMW -- and there are nagging questions about how competitive the 2026 engine will be, with early reports not encouraging. But Wheatley said they had all the building blocks for success. "We're looking at a campus expansion, we've got an ambitious program ahead of us and investment from Audi and QIA (Qatar Investment Authority). I'm really, really super-excited about where we're at," the Briton told Reuters. "I do not come to work to make up the numbers. I absolutely believe that we'll get on that path and we'll be winning races and world championships." Wheatley has decades of experience, now in his 35th year in Formula One after starting as a junior mechanic with Benetton. He joined Red Bull from Renault in 2006 and was sporting director when he left at the end of last season. With Red Bull he won six constructors' titles, eight drivers' titles and 120 grands prix. He was also instrumental in securing Max Verstappen's first title in 2021 after a radio conversation with race director Michael Masi triggered a fateful change to the safety car procedure. The Briton said such experiences had shaped him and would help in his new role, which he started in April. "The radio transcripts in Abu Dhabi showed the extreme competitive passion from all the teams and I can't begin to tell you what that feels like on the pitwall in a world championship life or death situation," he said. "There's a lot of people in my position in the sport who are intensely competitive. I've absolutely absorbed myself in that (at Red Bull) and I'm absorbing myself here. It really genuinely feels like my team already and I've only been here two months." Wheatley said the move to principal felt "entirely natural" and, unlike that from Renault to Red Bull, had involved no agonising. Red Bull had the most dominant season in Formula One history in 2023, winning 21 of 22 races, but were then in the firing line. Team boss Christian Horner faced allegations, of which he was cleared, of improper conduct towards a female employee. Relations with Verstappen's father Jos soured and star designer Adrian Newey announced his departure for Aston Martin. Wheatley, who could have stayed, said his decision was all about future opportunity. "There was a huge amount of talented people in that team over the whole period I was there. I've learned from as many of them as I could... we knitted a team together there and we did something quite extraordinary. "I absolutely loved that initial stage of transforming a team and then I kind of wanted to do it again... the idea of coming to this team in this transition period at this point in history was enormously attractive to me." While former Ferrari team boss Mattia Binotto heads the Audi project, Wheatley is in charge at the track and plans to attend all the races. "It's going to take time, but where we're starting from is a good place," he said. (Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Toby Davis)
