Kwiatkowski wins stage 18 in an Ineos one-two with Carapaz: Daily Tour Digest
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Michael Kwiatkowski won stage 18 of the Tour de France in a one-two for the Ineos Grenadiers, with Richard Carapaz finishing alongside his teammate to take second after the pair spent a long day together off the front.
After a fierce battle on the challenging parcours, Primoz Roglic and a handful of other riders arrived vvv later with Roglic maintaining his race lead. Tadej Pogacar and Miguel Ángel López came across the line just behind to hold onto their spots in the top three, while Richie Porte solidified his hold on fourth and Mikel Landa and Enric Mas both moved up the GC standings as Adam Yates and Rigoberto Urán lost time on the day. Meanwhile, the mountains classification saw Carapaz surge up the standings and into the lead after a busy day out front.
“That was some day. I can’t describe how grateful I am to the whole team and to Richard,” Kwiatkowski said. “It was an incredible day for us. I will never forget that. I’ve had some nice moments in cycling but that was a new experience. I had goosebumps for the last, I don’t know how many kilometers because I knew that the gap was so big that we were going to make it. Both of us really enjoyed the last kilometers and last meters.”
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After back-to-back top three finishes at the Giro Rosa, Lotte Kopecky powered to a stage victory on Thursday’s stage 7.
The 112.6-kilometer stage from Nola to Maddaloni concluded with a pair of trips up the Sanctuary of San Michele Arcangelo, and on the second of those ascents, the pack caught the last survivor of a prior move, Mariia Novolodskaia. From there, a select group formed to battle for the stage in the finale.
Inside the last kilometer, a big crash took out several riders, inculding Mitchelton-Scott teammates Annemiek van Vleuten and Amanda Spratt. Kopecky stayed upright to take a convincing win in the sprint over Lizzie Deignan, with Kasia Niewiadoma.
Van Vleuten remained in the race lead in the standings after the stage, but her status for Friday’s stage 8 remains unclear after her crash.
| Degenkolb wins stage 3 in Luxembourg
John Degenkolb picked up his first victory of the year on the third stage of the Tour de Luxembourg.
The 159.8-kilometer stage from Rosport to Schifflange came down to a sprint, where Degenkolb, who finished outside the time limit on the first stage of the Tour de France nearly three weeks ago, powered to victory. Eduard-Michael Grosu took runner-up honors on the day with Pieter Vanspeybrouck in third.
Degenkolb’s win came with Lotto-Soudal riding with two fewer riders on Thursday after the team pulled Tomasz Marczy?ski and Harm Vanhoucke out of the race. According to the team, Marczy?ski was suffering “viral symptoms.” A PCR test for COVID-19 was negative, but the team pulled Marczy?ski, his roommate Vanhoucke, and another staffer who had been in close contact with Marczy?ski as a precautionary measure.
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It was only 11 months ago that GoPro released its Hero 8 action camera, and now there’s a new top dog. The Hero 9 offers up to 5K resolution in addition to more common formats and impressive slow-mo options. Still photos get a similar boost to 20MP. There’s a new front LCD screen for easier self-shot framing, while a new battery is said to increase runtime by 30%.
The camera costs $449.99 / £429.99 / AU$699.95, which is a bit more expensive than the Hero 8 Black’s launch price.
| Coming up at the Tour
After some tough GC days at the Tour de France, Stage 19 will likely see the sprinters’ teams trying to keep it together for a bunch kick. That said, there is some up-and-down on the road to the finish line in Champagnole, so we’ll see how things play out on the day.
In case you missed it
| A day at the back of the Giro Rosa
As Owen Rogers writes, it’s tough riding at the back.
Today’s featured image of Michael Kwiatkowski and Richard Carapaz arriving together on stage 18 of the Tour de France comes from Cor Vos.
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