22 Sunday, June 11, 2017 SPORTS Dennis wins Swiz prologue Cham ustralian Rohan Dennis won the Tour ofA Switzerland prologue on Porte Saturday, flying around a 6km circuit in the central town of Cham at over 56kph to claim the first yellow jersey. The 27-year-old beat Swiss BMC teammate Stefan punishes Kueng by eight seconds with Austrian Matthias Brandle of Trek nine seconds off the pace. Giro d’Italia winner and time-trial specialist Froome, Tom Dumoulin of the Netherlands was fifth fastest, also at 9sec. The world champion and fan favourite Peter Sagan was 16sec off the pace while Kennaugh his great rival, Olympic champion Greg Van Avermaet was just 30sec behind the winner. The next two stages should provide bunch sprints giving takes Dennis the hope of holding on to yellow until at least Tuesday. Australia’s Richie Wednesday through to Porte smiles as he Sunday sees the Tour roll crosses the finish over Switzerland’s toughest line stage mountains before a final day individual time-trial over 28.6km on the deciding day. L’Alpe d’Huez the 168km ride from Aosta to Results and standings after the seventh stage, a I had a good chance. I targeted ustralian Richie Porte of the epic L’Alpe d’Huez climb 168km ride from Aosta to Alpe d’Huez: the top of col de Sarenne. the BMC team turned and summit finish via the Col “Hat’s off to Ben Swift for A Stage 20. Esteban Chaves (COL/ORI) 2:42. Hami claims pole the screws on Chris Froome de Sarenne. 1. Peter Kennaugh (GBR/SKY) 4hr Overall having stayed with me up in Saturday’s seventh stage of “Attack was the best form 43min 59sec, 1. Richie Porte (AUS/BMC) 25hr there. Initially he was gonna Montreal the Criterium du Dauphine of defence in the finale,” 2. Ben Swift (GBR/EAU) at 13sec, 38min 29sec, help (Diego) Ulissi. We’ve ewis Hamilton was both won by the latter’s Team Sky said Porte. “My team just 3. Jesus Herrada (ESP/MOV) 1:11, 2. Christopher Froome (GBR/SKY) known each other since we stunning and stunned on 4. Jelle Vanendert (BEL/LOT) 1:13, at 1min 02sec, L teammate Peter Kennaugh. incredibly covered the moves 5. Romain Bardet (FRA/ALM) 1:14, 3. Jakob Fuglsang (DEN/AST) 1:15, were nine years old so I knew Saturday when he reeled off With just one stage to go on of the best riders beforehand. 6. Richie Porte (AUS/BMC) 1:56, 4. Fabio Aru (ITA/AST) 1:41, he’s someone able to climb. I a set of record-breaking laps Sunday, Porte spurted at the They did a fantastic job. Selected 5. Alejandro Valverde (ESP/MOV) wasn’t confident I was going to claim pole position for end of a gruelling day’s racing “But we can’t be complacent. 15. Chris Froome (GBR/SKY) 2:19. 1:43, to beat him in a sprint. I had Sunday’s Canadian Grand to gain valuable seconds on I expect fireworks tomorrow. to get rid of him, which I did. Prix and was then given one direct rivals for the overall It’ll be a short stage. It’s not classification, at 1min 15sec. Kennaugh described his “To win at L’Alpe d’Huez is of his hero Ayrton Senna’s race victory, putting a further over until it’s over, but my Froome’s Team Sky victory as “incredible”. better than being an Olympic race helmets. 23sec between himself and team is incredibly strong so I teammate Kennaugh, who “It’s always hard to win a champion.” Sunday’s eighth The Brazilian’s family former teammate Froome, in want to finish it off for them.” won gold as part of the British mountain stage but I have and final stage is another arranged the presentation second at 1min 02sec. Astana’s Danish rider Jakob team pursuit team at the 2012 good form ahead of July,” the testing mountain ride, 115km to Hamilton for equalling Defending champion Fuglsang, a silver medallist in Olympics, soloed to the stage Manxman said in reference to long over three cols (Saisies, Senna’s career total of 65 Froome, a three-time winner the road race event at last win after pulling away from the Tour de France. Aravis, Colombiere) before a poles. of the Tour de France, year’s Rio Olympics, did British compatriot Ben Swift “It took us a while to make final climb to the finish line at The three-time world couldn’t stick with Porte’s manage to tail Porte and now (UAE Team Emirates) in the the break, but once the front the Plateau de Solaison, high champion Briton steered acceleration on the last 2km of stands third in the overall final three kilometres. group was established I knew in the Alps. his Mercedes to a fastest time of one minute and 11.459 seconds to outpace Montmeló Repsol Honda Team’s “We manage to improve, but MotoGP nearest rival and world Spanish rider Dani Pedrosa ani Pedrosa claimed pole we hope tomorrow the bike is well championship leading Dposition for today’s Catalan for the race. “At the moment very 1. Dani Pedrosa (ESP/Honda) 1min German Sebastian Vettel of MotoGP after a qualifying session happy. Second pole of the year is 43.870, Ferrari by 0.330 seconds. to forget for leading championship super.” Pedrosa’s Honda teammate 2. Jorge Lorenzo (ESP/Ducati) at 0.331, Both men clocked the contenders Maverick Vinales, Marquez endured a far more 3. Danilo Petrucci (ITA/Ducati) 0.350 first-ever times recorded at Valentino Rossi and Marc Marquez difficult day as he struggled for 2nd row: less than one minute and 12 on Saturday. grip under the baking Spanish sun 4. Marc Marquez (ESP/Honda) 0.450, seconds at the Circuit Gilles Pedrosa banked his second pole with track temperatures close to 50 5. Aleix Espargaro (ESP/Aprilla) 0.478, Villeneuve, the track where of the season with a best time of degrees Celsius. 6. Hector Barbera (ESP/Ducati) 0.511 Hamilton’s career took off 1min 43.870 to start ahead of Ducati However, the three time world 3rd row: 10 years ago with his first pair Jorge Lorenzo and Danilo champion still managed to salvage 7. Andrea Dovizioso (ITA/Ducati) win. It was Hamilton’s third Petrucci on the front row. the fourth best time despite crashing 0.581, pole this year, his sixth in “I am very happy today because twice in qualifying and four times 8. Jonas Folger (GER/Yamaha Tech3) Canada -– equalling the 0.730, normally in qualifying I struggle a overall on Saturday. 9. Maverick Vinales (ESP/Yamaha) record of German Michael lot,” said Pedrosa, who is fifth in Championship leader Vinales 0.750 Schumacher -– and the 65th the championship standings despite starts down in ninth after having to of his career. failing to finish two of the six races edge out Yamaha teammate Rossi 4th row: Four-time champion 10. Alvaro Bautista (ESP/Ducati) 0.870, so far this season. by fourth hundredths of a second 11. Scott Redding (GBR/Ducati) 0.982, Vettel did his best to grab Pedrosa “We were trying a lot of things just to qualify for the second session. 12. Andrea Iannone (ITA/Suzuki) 1.058 pole, but had to settle today because it was an important That left Rossi 13th fastest as he for second ahead of Finn day and the heat was very high, continues to battle back from chest Selected others: Valtteri Bottas. on pole 13. Valentino Rossi (ITA/Yamaha) testing tyres and testing settings. and stomach injuries.