Latest news with #TourdeFrance
TimesLIVE
an hour ago
- Health
- TimesLIVE
France battles rapid spread of viral cattle disease in cheese regions
France is battling the rapid spread among cows of an infectious illness called lumpy skin disease, with 51 outbreaks reported and about 1,000 animals culled since the first case was detected in late June, the farm ministry said on Thursday. A vaccination campaign launched on July 19 has so far covered around 100,000 cows in four Alpine departments, including Savoie and Haute-Savoie, where the outbreaks were detected, it said. Lumpy skin disease, a viral illness transmitted by insect bites, causes blisters and lowers milk production in cattle. It does not pose a risk to humans but often leads to trade bans and economic losses. A stage of the Tour de France cycling race was shortened last week after an outbreak along the planned route led to cattle culls and restricted access. The outbreaks have raised the alarm over the economic impact in regions known for production of cheeses such as Reblochon, Beaufort and Tomme de Savoie. 'We are in a growth phase of the disease,' a farm ministry official told reporters. France's national cattle herd numbers about 17-million, the largest in the EU. Britain and other countries have banned imports of raw milk cheese from France due to the recent outbreaks, French dairy producers said. Lumpy skin disease is widespread in North Africa and was also detected in Italy in late June.
Irish Independent
2 hours ago
- Sport
- Irish Independent
Allegations against David Rozman put Team Sky's entire legacy under microscope
In the soft-focus documentary which follows Team Sky during their hugely successful 2012 season, when Bradley Wiggins wins the Tour de France, we are told a story of what can be achieved when good, clean British ingenuity takes on the world's most morally bankrupt sport. Dave Brailsford's colleagues swoon over the benefits of his ploy of 'marginal gains'; colour-coded water bottles, standardised seat heights, a luxury bus: they all count.
Irish Examiner
3 hours ago
- Sport
- Irish Examiner
Your sport on TV this week: All-Ireland Ladies finals, Lions v Australia and the Galway Races
Don't Miss: The All-Ireland Ladies football finals take place in Croke Park on Sunday. First up is the Junior final is Antrim and Louth. In the Intermediate final Laois and Tyrone go head-to-head. Last game of the day will see Dublin and Meath fight it out for the Senior title. Watch all the action live on TG4. Set the Sky Box: The final Test of the Lions Tour takes place on Sunday with Andy Farrell's side looking for their third win and a 3-0 series win. Joe Schmidt's Wallabies came agonisingly close to defeating the Lions and will be hoping to claim a win on Saturday. Watch the action live on Sky Sports Main Event and Action. Streaming Pick: The Seat is a documentary that showcases a once-in-a-generation decision to promote Kimi Antonelli to a Formula One Driver making him the third youngest rookie in Formula One's history. Follow the 18-year-old prodigy become Mercedes-AMG Petronas' newest driver. For all your sport throughout the year, check out our sport calendar. Friday August 1 7am and 12.30pm, Shanghai Masters, Snooker, TNT Sports 2 10.15am, England v India, fifth test D2 Men, Sky Sports Cricket 12pm, Women's British Open, LPGA, Sky Sports Golf 12pm, Hungarian Grand Prix, Practice, Sky Sports F1 1pm, Goodwood, Horse Racing, Virgin Media One and UTV 2pm and 2.35pm, Women's Tour de France, Stage seven, TG4 and TNT Sports 1 4.45pm, Galway Races, Horse Racing, TG4 7pm, Wyndham Championship, PGA Tour, Sky Sports Golf 7.45pm, Bohemains v Drogheda Utd, SSE Airtricity Premier Division, Virgin Media Two 8pm, Luton Town v AFC Wimbledon, League One, Sky Sports Football 8pm, Leigh v Warrington, Super League, Sky Sports+ 8pm, St Helens v Castleford, Super League, Sky Sports+ Read More The Gaelic Football Show: Kerry class too much for Donegal in contest of styles Saturday August 2 7am and 12.30pm, Shanghai Masters, Snooker, TNT Sports 2 10.15am, England v India, fifth Test D3 Men, Sky Sports Cricket 11am, Australia v Lions, British and Irish Lions Tour, Sky Sports Action 11.15am, Hungarian Grand Prix, Practice and qualifying, Sky Sports F1 12pm, Women's British Open, LPGA, Sky Sports Golf 12.30pm, Women's Tour de France, Stage seven, TG4 and TNT Sports 1 12.30pm, Cardiff v Peterborough, Leauge One, Sky Sports Football 1.30pm, Goodwood, Horse Racing, Virgin Media One and UTV 1.45pm, Galway Races, Horse Racing, TG4 3pm, Barnet v Fleetwood Town, League Two, Sky Sport Football 5.30pm, Motherwell v Rangers, Scottish Premiership, Sky Sports Football 7pm, Wyndham Championship, PGA Tour, Sky Sports Golf 7.30pm, Galway Utd v Peamount, SSE Airtricity Women's Premier Division, TG4 11pm, Amir Albazi v Tatsuro Taira, UFC, TNT Sports 1 Read More Kieran Shannon: Ulster may be the great disrupters, but Kerry remain the great adapters Sunday August 3 7am and 12.30pm, Shanghai Masters, Snooker, TNT Sports 2 10.15am, England v India, fifth Test D4 Men, Sky Sports Cricket 11.45am, Antrim v Louth, TG4 All-Ireland Ladies Junior final, TG4 12pm, Stockport County v Bolton, League One, Sky Sports Football 12pm, Women's British Open, LPGA, Sky Sports Golf 12.30pm, Hungarian Grand Prix, Race, Sky Sports F1 1.45pm, Laois v Tyrone, TG4 All-Ireland Ladies Intermediate final, TG4 2pm, Galway Races, Horse Racing, TG4 2pm, Women's Tour de France, Stage 9, TG4 Player and TNT Sports 1 2pm, Falkirk v Dundee Utd, Scottish Premiership, Sky Sports Football 4.15pm, Dublin v Meath, TG4 All-Ireland Ladies Senior final, TG4 4.30pm, Celtic v St Mirren, Scottish Premiership, Sky Sports Football 5pm, National Senior T&F Championships, Athletics, RTÉ 2 7pm, Wyndham Championship, PGA Tour, Sky Sports Golf 7pm, Girona v Wolverhampton, Pre-season friendly, Premier Sports 2 7pm, Bournemouth v West Ham Utd, Summer Series, Sky Sports Premier League 10pm, Manchester Utd v Everton, Summer Series, Sky Sports Premier League Read More Duncan Casey: Wallabies restore some pride but they were too late to Lions party
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Dave Brailsford is back leading Ineos Grenadiers on the hunt for Tour de France stage wins
It has been only a month since Dave Brailsford was jettisoned from his role as Manchester United auditor, having ruffled plenty of feathers in the corridors of Old Trafford and Carrington in his bid to revive a great sporting institution. Now the former cycling supremo is back in the saddle just in time for the Tour de France as Ineos Grenadiers seek their own renaissance. 'He's like a kid in a sweet shop, talking about climbs and getting back to the mountains,' revealed team CEO John Allert. 'That's the battlefield that he knows and loves. We have welcomed him back into the team with open arms. He's a not-so-secret weapon for us to use and we plan on using him to the fullest extent we can.' Brailsford spearheaded British Cycling's Olympic success in Beijing and London before taking charge of Team Sky and masterminding their domination of the Tour during the 20-teens, winning the race with Bradley Wiggins, Chris Froome four times, Geraint Thomas and then Egan Bernal under the Ineos rebrand, although the glorious era was tainted by accusations the team 'crossed an ethical line'. His arrival at Old Trafford was not universally appreciated, and he clashed with staff at the club during his efforts to improve processes behind the scenes. Now Ineos owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe has redeployed Brailsford to his beleaguered cycling team, who are without a grand tour win in four years and have little hope of claiming the yellow jersey at the Tour de France, which begins in Lille on Saturday. The long-term task to regenerate the team as regular Tour de France podium-botherers is enormous after losing so much ground to the modern alphas of the peloton, Visma Lease-a-Bike and UAE Team Emirates. 'It's obvious we want to win the Tour, but there's no point just saying you want to win it,' said Allert. 'We've got to do more than we're doing, clearly, to get better than the people that are dominating it at the moment.' But in the short term, winning a couple of stages at this year's race would at least show that Ineos can compete and come out on top, if not over three weeks then in selected moments. 'Winning stages is going to be really important,' added sport director Zak Dempster. 'I think we need to be realistic in GC [general classification], but I think we need to be brave and bold and move the race where we can, and hopefully take time in creative ways. It's no secret that, face to face, there are guys who are stronger than us, that's the reality. But at the same time if we're smart then nothing's out of the question in terms of GC.' Thomas is riding in his final Tour and will largely play a support role behind team leader Carlos Rodriguez, who finished fifth two years ago, although the 39-year-old Welshman would love one last stage win to go with the three on his palmares from 2017 and 2018, the year he won the yellow jersey. 'I'd love to be competitive and go for a stage, a stage win would be amazing,' Thomas said. 'You've got to be in super great condition for that. And then obviously being alongside Carlos deep into the mountains and helping him as much as I can, off the bike as much as on it. He knows what he's doing anyway, but I think just playing a role in the team of just trying to share my wisdom – sounds a bit... but you know what I mean.' Thomas abandoned last month's Tour de Suisse after twisting his knee in a crash, but played down concerns over his fitness before the race. 'I got my foot caught and twisted, and I also hurt my hamstring and calf. The idea was to rest up properly and be ready to go again rather than continue to race and possibly make it worse or tweak something else. I got some good training in afterwards behind the motorbike, I've done the best I could. 'It was frustrating because it would have been nice to see exactly where I was at compared to everyone else rather than just training. But no issues now.' Ineos's best chance of a stage win may come in the first of two individual time trials on this year's course, through Italian time-trial specialist Filippo Ganna, who has seven stage wins at the Giro d'Italia and one at the Vuelta a Espana, but still needs a victory at the Tour de France to complete the grand-tour set. 'Maybe the first days we try to be more conservative, try to go all-in for the TT, and then after that's the start 100 per cent of my Tour,' Ganna said. 'I would like to try [and win a stage]. Why not this year?' Ineos Grenadiers at 2025 Tour de France Thymen Arensman, Tobias Foss, Filippo Ganna, Axel Laurance, Carlos Rodriguez, Connor Swift, Geraint Thomas, Samuel Watson.
Yahoo
5 hours ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
Allegations against Ineos's David Rozman put Team Sky's entire legacy under the microscope
In the soft-focus documentary which follows Team Sky during their hugely successful 2012 season, when Bradley Wiggins wins the Tour de France, we are told a story of what can be achieved when good clean British ingenuity takes on the world's most morally bankrupt sport. Dave Brailsford's colleagues swoon over the benefits of their team principal's 'marginal gains' ploy; colour-coded water bottles, standardised seat heights, a luxury bus: they all count. In one clip, team chef Soren Kristiansen cheers his energy-conserving food programme while chopping some aubergines. In another, team physio Dan Guillemette lauds their 'really good' pillows. 'That's the whole thing about marginal gains,' he says, after tucking in the sleep-enhancing sheets beneath a hypoallergenic mattress. 'On their own they probably don't make a great deal of difference, but add them together and that's the difference between this team and our rivals.' But what we later discovered was that the pillows and the power food were supplemented by a ploy to exploit grey areas in the rules, according to a 54-page report by a parliamentary select committee, which concluded that Wiggins used triamcinolone before major races to enhance performance, questioned Brailsford's 'winning clean' ethos and accused Team Sky of 'crossing an ethical line' by cynically exploiting therapeutic use exemptions. Team Sky, who later became Ineos, have always maintained that they have stuck to the rules, and Wiggins has vehemently denied wrongdoing, as have his teammates who included fellow yellow jersey winners Chris Froome and Geraint Thomas. But fresh revelations over the past week have restored the spotlight on Sky's era of success. David Rozman, a long-term member of the team's staff, left this year's Tour de France mid-race after allegations by Germany TV station ARD that, in 2012, he exchanged messages with Mark Schmidt, a notorious German doping doctor who was convicted in 2021 of leading a sophisticated doping ring involving multiple cyclists and skiers. Rozman is a team 'carer' – essentially an assistant who carries out rider massages among other support duties – and worked closely with Wiggins and Froome during his career. Some of the messages were published by The Times. They included a text, allegedly from Rozman to Schmidt, sent one month before the 2012 Tour de France won by Wiggins, which read: 'Do you still have any of the stuff that Milram [Schmidt's disgraced former team] used during the races? If so, can you bring it for the boys?' Then, during the Tour, the day before Froome won on La Planche des Belle Filles and Wiggins claimed the yellow jersey, it is alleged that text messages reveal how Schmidt visited Team Sky's hotel to meet Rozman. In another message, Rozman sent Schmidt the contact details for a suspected drug dealer, based in Slovenia and codenamed Maestro Baltazar, who was allegedly in the business of supplying banned substances. The International Testing Agency is investigating the case. Rozman is yet to speak publicly about the claims, and The Independent has approached him for comment. Ineos Grenadiers said in a statement: 'To date the team has received no evidence from any relevant authority. In response to the team's request for information, the ITA has advised the team that it cannot share any further information, due to legal and confidentiality restrictions. Both David [Brailsford] and the team will of course cooperate with the ITA and any other authority. The team reiterates its zero-tolerance policy and is unable to comment further at this time.' Brailsford was the genius hand pulling every string of Sky's great era, giving every department unwavering focus, unity and direction, from medical and nutrition to strategy and performance, to the riders themselves on the road. He returned to the Tour de France this month after his brief foray into football with Manchester United, but refused to answer any questions on the Rozman issue, telling journalists: 'No comment, and adding when they persisted: 'F****** come on guys.' Rozman may be cleared of wrongdoing. Or he may be found guilty and then simply be dismissed as a rogue operator, a bad apple in the bunch. After all, there are skeletons on most team buses in this sport, one where an eye-watering number of alleged, accused or admitted dopers are still employed among top teams. But then you remember that culture, media and sport committee report, and the whistleblower who alleged Wiggins and several teammates were using corticosteroids out of competition 'to lean down in preparation for major races'. You remember that so little of what went on can be examined because team doctor Richard Freeman destroyed his laptop with a blunt instrument and failed to keep adequate records; you remember Geert Leinders, who worked with Team Sky in 2012, and who was later banned for life for multiple doping violations from 1996-2009 on a previous team. And now we have the unproven allegations against Rozman. As a British cycling fan, it was hard not to feel smug watching their decade of dominance. This was a sport that the British had no hand in – road cycling didn't begin in Britain, it wasn't codified by the British, and it was rarely won by British riders, let alone a British team. Brailsford and Team Sky changed all that, taking a grip of the Tour de France peloton with the kind of carefully calibrated control that irked many of those in the sport's heartlands. Now it is hard not to feel disconsolate. Rozman may be exonerated, Team Sky reprieved. But the scrutiny on that era remains more than a decade later, like a knife scratching at the story's edges, chipping away at what we thought we knew. The outcome of the ITA's investigation could rewrite the legacy.
