Cycling: Britain's trio set track standard
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Britain's men were fastest qualifiers for the team sprint at the World Track Championships in Copenhagen yesterday morning.
Chris Hoy, who won gold in the 1km time trial last night, Jamie Staff and Craig McLean completed the three laps in 44.813 seconds, making them the quickest of the 15 teams and setting up a scheduled meeting with Poland in the first round last night.
The highly-rated German trio were second on 44.891secs while France were third-fastest in 44.958secs. The Australian team which won Commonwealth gold over England in Manchester this summer came in fourth in a time of 45.088secs.
In the Tour of Spain, the Spaniard Garcia Acosta won stage 19 as the overall leaders were looking for any advantage going into the last two days.
Acosta, from the iBanesto team, made his break 51km from the finish of the 177.8km stage into Avila, and was never caught.
While Acosta disappeared into the distance and built a healthy lead, which at one point was more than 2mins 20secs, the three leading riders were all looking to set themselves up for the final two stages. Roberto Heras, leading overall but aware of his shortcomings in the crucial time trial tomorrow, came in fifth and conceded what could be vital seconds to his main rivals.
Second-placed Aitor Gonzalez, from the Kelme team, was second and pinched four seconds in the overall classification, while third-placed team-mate Oscar Sevilla was given the same time as Heras, and remains 1min 45 secs behind the leader.
Today's stage 20 is a relatively fast, flat stage with the sprinters likely to come to the fore, with tomorrow's the 41.2km time trial into Madrid, a stage which will heavily favour Gonzalez over both Heras and Sevilla.
Gonzalez won the only other time trial of the race, on stage 10, beating Heras by a hefty 1min 34secs. If Heras needs any pointers on how not to defend a lead on the final day, he could ask Sevilla, who gave up a 25-second lead to Angel Casero in last year's Vuelta.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments