TOP 100 SPORT SITES
| |||
|
| |||
| |||
|
| |||
| Blow for Arsenal as Cesc Fà bregas comeback delayed and fixtures pile up Arsenal’s hunt for trophies suffered a double setback yesterday with the news that Cesc Fà bregas will be out for another week with a hamstring injury. That revelation was compounded by a piece of fixture scheduling that has enraged Arsène Wenger, his manager. feeds.timesonline.co.uk |
Schumacher impressed with Mercedes • Former Brawn team 'hungry for more' success• German driver visits headquarters in BracknellMichael Schumacher said he was very impressed by Mercedes' preparations for the new Formula One season, Âfollowing a visit to the team's headquarters in Bracknell.Schumacher, who won a record seven Formula One titles before retiring three years ago, is returning to grand prix racing at the age of 41, He said he was "surprised" by how motivated his new team were during his two-day visit.The German driver said the former Brawn GP team did not "seem to be spoilt by success at all" and seemed "to be hungry for more". Jenson Button, who has since moved to McLaren, won the drivers' world title for Brawn last year.Schumacher said the purpose of the visit was to discover how the team works and to get to know the engineers.Michael SchumacherMercedes GPFormula OneMotor sportguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Team Sky's Henderson comes in fifth • HTC-Columbia's Andre Greipe wins Clare-Tanunda stage• Henderson fifth on Team Sky's competitive debut in AustraliaForty-eight hours after a one-two finish in the first event of the international cycling season, Team Sky could not maintain their perfect start in the second. Instead, stage one of the Tour Down Under saw order restored, and supremacy passing back to a familiar outfit, HTC-Columbia, thanks to Andre Greipel's powerful finish in Tanunda.They call Greipel the Gorilla – which he seems to like, judging by the depiction of animal on his bike – and the German, arguably the world's second-fastest sprinter behind his team-mate Mark Cavendish, won with Cavendish-esque conviction. After Sunday showcased Sky's intensively rehearsed and perfectly executed lead-out train, it was derailed today when Russell Downing and Ben Swift, both integral to Greg Henderson's victory, were caught in a split on a climb 25km from the finish.It was Lance Armstrong's RadioShack team that forced the split, his team-mate, Gert Steegmans, admitting after he came second that their tactic had been "to try and kill them". Yet the remaining members of the Sky train, notably Mathew Hayman and Chris Sutton, still managed to manoeuvre Henderson into a race-winning situation approaching the finish. After finishing fifth he admitted that a hesitation cost him dear. "I stalled just a little bit and lost some momentum," said Henderson. "But I saw Greipel go past me and went, 'Woah!' He was too fast for everyone."Dave Brailsford, the team principal, said afterwards that the riders had reconnoitered the finish the previous week. "They had a plan, they executed it, and you can't ask for more than that," said Brailsford, who spent the team's first road race in the team car with sports director Sean Yates.Yates admitted, though, that the team had "hit the front a bit early", with Sutton, in particular, forced to make a huge effort before peeling off for Henderson to launch. "Sutton's dying now," said Yates, "but it was a good finish for Greipel: slightly uphill, a headwind. You can't win 'em all. We know we're one of the stronger teams so we have to take responsibility, which we did. Now Greipel's team has the leader's jersey, and the responsibility of defending that."For Downing, riding his first ProTour race at the age of 31, the speed and heat caused him to suffer, not least because he – in the company of Swift – spent late December and early January preparing for the Tour Down Under on a stationary bike in his living room in Sheffield. "I had a few jobs today," he said, "collecting bottles and helping the boys out, but I didn't quite have the legs on the climb to dig that deep. It was fast, and Ben and I didn't manage to make the split."Greipel won last year's first stage, before hitting a parked motorcycle and dislocating his shoulder during stage three. It put him out for four months, but he returned to claim 20 victories – second only to Cavendish – at a rate of one in three starts. He and Cavendish are uneasy bed fellows at HTC-Columbia, with Greipel unable to compete for Tour de France stage wins against his team-mate, though they could go head-to-head next year with Greipel out of contract at the end of the season, and Cavendish likely to be on Team Sky's radar, despite being contracted to the US team for 2011.Cavendish inadvertently made the news yesterday, too, with Riccardo Ricco responding to criticism from the Isle of Man rider, who called the Italian, about to return from a doping ban, a "parasite". Cavendish had said that, when he next encounters him, he will be tempted to get off his bike and hit Ricco for his doping crimes during the 2008 Tour de France, in which he won two stages before testing positive."Of course, [Cavendish] is at the peak of his career and so he can say what he wants," Ricco told Gazzetta dello Sport. "I'll take it. Not only out on the bike but in a fight as well. I don't even know him. And he doesn't know me. He's gone over the top this time."Team SkyCyclingRichard Mooreguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
FA Cup and Premier League video previews: Rio Ferdinand to return for Manchester United All matches 3pm unless stated feeds.timesonline.co.uk |
Joe Flacco an overachieving headliner on '09 All-Joe Team Our 18th All-Joe team featuring a winning core of players but they might need bonus checks since they're missing other contract escalators. ... rssfeeds.usatoday.com |