Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/12808
2B – Daily News – Thursday, July 1, 2010 Armstrong vs. Contador II in 2010 Tour de France PARIS (AP) — Lance Arm- strong is giving the Tour de France one last go and two-time winner Alberto Contador is again the man standing between the Texan and an eighth title in cycling’s show- case event. And this time they aren’t on the same team. With their rivalry in the open, the action on the road has a chance to chase away the perennial dop- ing cloud that lingers over the three-week race. The nearly 200 competitors in the 97th Tour will start Saturday in the Dutch port city of Rotterdam on a 2,263-mile trek that will take them across Belgium and clock- wise around France before finish- ing up in Paris on July 25. Aside from the short prologue Saturday, organizers have sched- uled only one individual time trial, on the next-to-last race day. The course layout offers a bouncy and bracing run over cobblestones, and treks through the Pyrenees that will be crucial to the outcome. The sport already has had a bumpy ride this year. Swiss star Fabian Cancellara has been hounded by repeated questions about whether he used a motor hidden in his bike frame while winning the Paris-Roubaix race — claims he has denied as ridiculous. But the International Cycling Union, or UCI, will use a scanner to help make sure no such contraptions are on hand at the Tour. Armstrong — by far cycling’s biggest star — has been on the defensive over doping allegations from former teammate Floyd Lan- dis, the fellow American who was stripped of his 2006 Tour title for cheating. The 38-year-old Armstrong, who’ll be seeking an eighth victo- ry at his 13th Tour, has had other knocks. He crashed out of the Tour of California and had his training disrupted by two bouts of illness. In recent weeks, he has showed impressive, if not spectacular, form: He placed third at the not- so-difficult Tour of Luxembourg, and second at the mountain-laden Tour of Switzerland. Contador, who stayed with Astana after Armstrong bolted last STREAK (Continued from page 1B) Federer next — even if the Serb wouldn’t say so. ‘‘It’s normal for him to lose,’’ Djokovic said. ‘‘I mean, you think he shouldn’t lose at all?’’ Also Friday, Nadal — ranked No. 1, seeded No. 2 — will meet No. 4 Andy Murray, who is trying to become the first British man to win Wimbledon since 1936. Britain hasn’t even put a man in the final since 1938. ‘‘A huge, huge wait for us,’’ Murray said after get- ting past No. 10 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 6-7 (5), 7-6 (5), 6-2, 6-2 to reach the semifinals for the second straight year. Murray has played in two year for Team RadioShack, looks nearly invincible. He won the Paris-Nice, the Tour of Algarve and the Vuelta de Castilla and Leon, and placed second in the Criterium du Dauphine. Taking a page out of Arm- strong’s old playbook, Contador has limited his racing days this year to focus on peaking for the Tour. Armstrong, who turns 39 in September, knows he faces a stiff test. ‘‘It will be very hard to win the Tour,’’ he said this month at the Tour of Switzerland. ‘‘With my age, and the explosiveness of the other guys, my own struggles with the time trials in the last couple of years ... we’ll have to be smart, to be a bit lucky, to play the team card a little bit. ‘‘There are a handful of guys who are bigger favorites than me.’’ He could have been talking about the Schleck brothers, Frank and Andy; Ivan Basso, the Giro d’Italia champion; and Cadel Evans, a two-time runner-up at the Tour. Also in the mix are Russia’s Denis Menchov, Britain’s Bradley Wiggins — fourth at last year’s Tour — and Kazakh star Alexan- dre Vinokourov, a teammate of Contador’s. Four of the race’s 20 stages will be in the Pyrenees, the mountains on the French-Spanish border. There is a twin billing of the dreaded Tourmalet pass — includ- ing an uphill finish on it in Stage 17. Among other race highlights will be Tuesday’s Stage 3, featur- ing a total of 8 miles of bone- and bike-jarring cobblestones. Among sprinters, keep an eye on Britain’s Mark Cavendish. He won six stages last year and is intent on taking home the green jersey as best sprinter, a prize that has eluded him in each of his last three Tours. U.S. rider Tyler Farrar also will be looking to make his mark in the discipline, as will veterans such as Robbie McEwen of Australia, Oscar Freire of Spain and Thor Hushovd of Spain. The 2009 Tour was relatively free of doping given how many stars have been caught, linked to drug scandals or hounded by per- previous major finals, losing each time to — who else? — Federer. ‘‘Winning a Grand Slam is obviously why you play the game. Obviously, if it was here, to win the first one would make it, you know, extra special,’’ Murray said. ‘‘But I’m a long, long way from doing that.’’ He’s only 3-7 against Nadal, who quit while trail- ing against Murray in the Australian Open quarterfi- nals in January because of a right knee injury. Nadal’s knees prevented him from defending his Wimbledon title last year, and his right one flared up earlier in this tournament. He looked fine Wednesday, beating No. 6 Robin Soder- ling 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (4), 6-1 in a rematch of the French Open sistent suspicion about cheating in recent years. Mikel Astarloza of Spain, winner of the 16th stage, provided the only blemish, getting disqualified after the Tour for a positive test that occurred before the race. Even so, France’s anti-doping agency accused the UCI of lax controls at last year’s Tour, spark- ing a new, bitter feud between the two agencies and ending their cooperation on anti-doping checks. Because of that squabble, the World Anti-Doping Agency will fill the void left by the French agency, deploying six independent observers to keep watch on the UCI’s doping controls at this year’s Tour. Race organizers say the UCI’s biological passport program and hard penalties are helping to curb doping and catch cheats. final, which also was won by the Spaniard. The only real blip for Nadal came at the outset, when he fell behind 5-0 in 18 minutes. In the first game of the second set, with Nadal serv- ing at 30-all, Soderling hit a shot called long. Soderling challenged the call, and the replay showed the ball good. The chair umpire gave him the point, and Nadal argued at length that the lineman’s call distracted him from hit- ting the ball back in play. The dispute seemed to spur the five-time French Open champion, who hit a big forehand to erase a break point, then leaped, yelled and punched the air. That began a stretch in which Nadal won 9 of 10 points, and he was on his way. ‘‘Without being a 100 percent guarantee, it’s clearly an improve- ment compared to what was done in the past,’’ Tour director Christ- ian Prudhomme said in an inter- view with French sports daily L’E- quipe. ‘‘I’m convinced there has been a real step forward.’’ Armstrong remains in doping investigators’ cross hairs. French prosecutors say his 2009 Astana team is facing a preliminary inves- tigation after the discovery of syringes during last year’s race. That probe is continuing. Landis dropped a bombshell in April, accusing Armstrong of doping, teaching other riders to cheat, and paying off a top cycling official after allegedly testing pos- itive in 2002. Armstrong has denied Landis’ claims. U.S. officials are investigating the allegations, and the UCI has asked members in four countries ‘‘Now that Roger lost,’’ Soderling said, ‘‘I’d pick him as the favorite.’’ It was Soderling who knocked off Federer in the Roland Garros quarterfinals, and there is a common thread through the Swiss star’s three most recent loss- es at major tournaments, including to Juan Martin del Potro in the U.S. Open final in September. Berdych, Soderling and del Potro are all imposing guys who absolutely pound the ball on serves and drive flat forehands through the court. At 6-foot-5, Berdych is an inch taller than Soder- ling, an inch shorter than del Potro — and 4 inches taller than Federer. ‘‘If I’m healthy, I can han- dle those guys, you know,’’ Federer said. Scoreboard WORLD CUP Quarterfinals Friday’s matches Netherlands vs.Brazil, 7 a.m. Uruguay vs. Ghana, 11:30 a.m. Saturday’s matches Germany vs. Argentina, 7 a.m. Paraguay vs.Spain, 11:30 a.m. MLB West Division Texas American League WL Pct GB Angels 44 35 .557 3.5 A’s Seattle 33 44 .429 13.5 East Division WL Pct GB New York 47 30 .610 — Boston 47 31 .603 .5 Tampa Bay 44 32 .579 2.5 Toronto 40 39 .506 8 Baltimore 24 53 .312 23 Central Division Minnesota 43 35 .551 — Detroit WL Pct GB 41 36 .532 1.5 Chicago 40 37 .519 2.5 Kansas City 34 45 .430 9.5 Cleveland 30 47 .390 12.5 ——— Wednesday’s results Baltimore 9, Oakland 6 Cleveland 3, Toronto 1 Kansas City 7, Chicago 6 Minnesota 5, Detroit 1 Seattle 7, New York 0 Tampa Bay at Boston, 7:10 p.m. Texas at Los Angeles, late Today’s games Oakland (Cahill 7-2) at Baltimore (Arrieta 2-1), 4:05 p.m.,CSNC Toronto (Marcum 7-3) at Cleveland (Masterson 2-7), 9:05 a.m. Seattle (Rowland-Smith 1-7) at New York (Sabathia 9-3), 10:05 a.m., MLBN Tampa Bay (Niemann 6-2) at Minnesota (Pavano 9-6), 5:10 p.m., MLBN 46 30 .605 — 38 41 .481 9.5 Texas (C.Wilson 6-3) at Los Angeles (Jer.Weaver 7-3), 7:05 p.m. Tuesday’s late result Los Angeles 6, Texas 5 West Division National League WL Pct GB Padres 46 32 .590 — Dodgers 43 35 .551 3 Colorado 41 37 .526 5 GIANTS 40 37 .519 5.5 Arizona 31 48 .392 15.5 East Division WL Pct GB Atlanta 46 33 .582 — New York 43 34 .558 2 Philadelphia 41 35 .539 3.5 Florida 37 40 .481 8 Washington 34 45 .430 12 Central Division WL Pct GB Cincinnati 44 35 .557 — St. Louis 43 35 .551 .5 Milwaukee 35 43 .449 8.5 Chicago 34 44 .436 9.5 Houston 31 48 .392 13 Pittsburgh 27 51 .346 16.5 ——— Wednesday’s results Los Angeles 8, San Francisco 2 Arizona 4, St. Louis 2 Atlanta 4, Washington 1 Cincinnati 4, Philadelphia 3 Houston 5, Milwaukee 1 Pittsburgh 2, Chicago 0 San Diego 13, Colorado 3 New York vs. Florida at San Juan, late Today’s games San Francisco (Bumgarner 0-1) at Colorado (Cook 2-5), 8:40 p.m.,CSNB Cincinnati (T.Wood 0-0) at Chicago (Silva 8-2), 11:20 a.m. New York (J.Santana 5-5) at Washington (L.Hernandez 6-4), 4:05 p.m. Philadelphia (Hamels 6-6) at Pittsburgh (D.McCutchen 0-3), 4:05 p.m. Milwaukee (Wolf 5-7) at St. Louis (Hawksworth 2-4), 5:15 p.m. Houston (Moehler 1-4) at San Diego (Garland 8-5), 7:05 p.m. Tuesday’s late results Los Angeles 4, San Francisco 2 Colorado 6, San Diego 3 North Division GOLDEN Golden League WL Pct. GB OUTLAWS 25 9 .735 — Calgary 20 13 .606 4.5 Edmonton 17 16 .515 7.5 Victoria 14 19 .424 10.5 St. George 14 20 .412 11 South Division Maui Yuma WL Pct. GB 20 13 .606 — 19 14 .576 1 Tucson 16 18 .471 4.5 Orange Co. 15 18 .455 5 Tijuana 6 26 .188 13.5 ——— Tuesday’s late results Chico 3, Orange County 2 Edmonton 14, Calgary 11 Tucson 6, Yuma 5 Wednesday’s results Orange County at Chico, late Edmonton at Calgary, late Maui at St. George, late Tijuana at Victoria, late Yuma at Tucson, late Today’s games St. George at Chico, 7:08 p.m. Calgary at Edmonton, 6 p.m. Tijuana at Victoria, 1:30 p.m. Yuma at Tucson, 7 p.m. WNBA EASTERN CONFERENCE WL Pct GB Atlanta 12 4 .750 — Connecticut 10 5 .667 1.5 Washington 10 5 .667 1.5 Indiana 9 6 .600 2.5 New York 7 7 .500 4 Chicago 6 9 .400 5.5 WESTERN CONFERENCE WL Pct GB Seattle 14 2 .875 — San Antonio 5 8 .385 7.5 Minnesota 5 10 .333 8.5 Phoenix 5 10 .333 8.5 Los Angeles 3 11 .214 10 Tulsa ——— Tuesday’s late results New York 80, Los Angeles 68 Seattle 86, San Antonio 72 Wednesday’s results No games scheduled Today’s games Minnesota at Atlanta, 4 p.m. Connecticut at Chicago, 5 p.m. Washington at Phoenix, 7 p.m. San Antonio at Los Angeles, 7:30 p.m. MLS WESTERN CONFERENCE WL T Pts GF GA Galaxy 10 1 3 33 22 4 Salt Lake 7 3 3 24 22 11 Colorado 6 3 3 21 15 11 FC Dallas 4 2 6 18 15 12 QUAKES 54 3 18 15 14 Houston 5 7 2 17 20 21 Seattle Chivas USA 3 9 1 10 14 20 EASTERN CONFERENCE WL T Pts GF GA Columbus 7 2 3 24 18 11 New York 8 5 0 24 17 16 Toronto FC 5 4 3 18 15 14 Chicago 4 3 5 17 17 16 Kansas City 3 6 3 12 11 16 New England 3 8 2 11 13 21 Philadelphia 3 7 1 10 14 22 D.C. ——— Today’s games Houston at Toronto FC, 4 p.m., ESPN2 WIMBLEDON Wednesday At The All England Lawn Tennis & Croquet Club, Wimbledon, England Purse: $20.3 million (Grand Slam) Surface: Grass-Outdoor 3 12 .200 10.5 Men Singles Quarterfinals Novak Djokovic (3), Serbia, def.Yen-hsun Lu, Taiwan, 6-3, 6-2, 6-2. Tomas Berdych (12), Czech Republic, def. Roger Federer (1), Switzerland, 6-4, 3-6, 6-1, 6-4. Rafael Nadal (2), Spain, def. Robin Soderling (6), Sweden, 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (4), 6-1. Andy Murray (4), Britain, def. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (10), France, 6-7 (5), 7-6 (5), 6-2, 6-2. DEALS 4 7 3 15 15 20 3 9 1 10 10 24 NOTE: Three points for victory, one point for tie. Major League Baseball American League DETROIT—Agreed to terms with RHP Patrick Cooper, RHP Jordan Pratt and RHP Jeff Barfield. SEATTLE—Sent C Eliezer Alfonzo to Taco- ma (PCL). TAMPA BAY—Activated OF Gabe Kapler from the 15-day DL. Designated IF/DH Hank Blalock for assignment. TEXAS—Recalled RHP Omar Beltre from Oklahoma City (PCL). National League ARIZONA—Selected the contract of RHP Barry Enright from Mobile (SL). Optioned RHP Carlos Rosa to Reno (PCL). CINCINNATI—Optioned LHP Daniel Ray Herrera to Louisville (IL). COLORADO—Optioned LHP Franklin Morales to Colorado Springs (PCL). Recalled RHP Esmil Rogers from Colorado Springs. HOUSTON—Agreed to terms with RHP Jason Chowning and RHP Paul Gerrish. NEW YORK—Agreed to terms with C Blake Forsythe and assigned him to the Mets (GCL). National Football League DETROIT—Agreed to terms with CB Amari Spievey. National Basketball Association GOLDEN STATE—Extended qualifying offers to F Anthony Morrow and G C.J.Wat- son, making them restricted free agents. CHICAGO—Waived F Rob Kurz and F Chris Richard. PHOENIX—Announced C Amare Stoudemire has opted out of the final year of his contract. SAN ANTONIO—Announced F Richard Jef- ferson has opted out of the final year of his contract. National Hockey League ANAHEIM—Bought out the contract of D Nathan Oystrick. ATLANTA—Re-signed D Noah Welch. CAROLINA—Announced the retirement of C Rod Brind’Amour. CHICAGO—Acquired F Viktor Stalberg, F Philippe Paradis and F Christopher DiDomenico from Toronto for RW Kris Ver- steeg and LW Bill Sweatt. COLUMBUS—Claimed LW Ethan Moreau off waivers from Edmonton. DALLAS—Re-signed F Krys Barch and RW Francis Wathier to two-year contract exten- sions. EDMONTON—Traded F Patrick O’Sullivan to Phoenix for D Jim Vandermeer. FLORIDA—Bought out the final year on D Ville Koistinen’s contract. MINNESOTA—Re-signed LW Matt Kassian to a two-year contract and D Nate Prosser to a one-year contract. NEW JERSEY—Re-signed RW David Clark- son to a multiyear contract. PHILADELPHIA—Re-signed G Michael Leighton to a two-year contract extension. PHOENIX—Named Mike Nealy chief operat- ing officer. TAMPA BAY—Bought out the contract of LW Todd Fedoruk. College BAYLOR—Named Jared Nuness men’s basketball director of video and operations and Sam Patterson video coordinator. ELON—Named David Vaughn volunteer assistant football coach. ILLINOIS STATE—Announced senior men’s basketball G Bobby Hill has been dismissed from the university after pleading guilty to criminal sexual abuse. MARQUETTE—Announced sophomore men’s basketball F Jamil Wilson is transfer- ring from Oregon. OREGON STATE—Named Scott Rueck women’s basketball coach. TEXAS-SAN ANTONIO—Signed men’s basketball coach Brooks Thompson to a con- tract extension through the 2014-15 season. WESTERN KENTUCKY—Announced G Jordan Swing has left the basketball team. WISCONSIN-LA CROSSE—Named Kim Blum interim athletic director. to do so, too. Despite all of that, Armstrong is focused on the Tour — which will be his last, according to a post he made on Twitter this week. He doesn’t seem to be stressing out about it, and is thinking of his family. And putting his illustrious career in perspective. ‘‘I have to be happy: 39 years old, I’ve been doing this for 17 years, and I’m still at the front,’’ he said. ‘‘Despite (what) I read in the newspapers, and on the Internet every day, about people talking about me, the record speaks for itself. ‘‘These days I don’t get too nervous. I’m pretty comfortable in my life right now. If I’m 20 min- utes down, I’m still going to go home and have five kids jumping all over me.’’ But for now, he wants to get a jump on Contador and Co. Still, the 24-year-old Berdych deserves credit for sticking to his high-risk, high-reward style, for staying focused when the going got tough, and for delivering more winners than Federer, 51-44. ‘‘You can say that he was unlucky,’’ Berdych said, repeating a word Federer used, ‘‘or you can say that maybe the opponent was a little bit better, and he just won the big points.’’ Berdych’s serve — con- sistently in the 130s mph (above 210 kph) — got him out of trouble repeatedly, not only because it produced 12 aces and several service win- ners, but also because it put him in early control of exchanges when Federer managed to make a return. One key statistic: Berdych saved 7 of the 8 break points he faced; Feder- er saved 2 of 6. The outcome pretty much was settled with Berdych serving while down 3-2 in the fourth set. Helped by two double-faults, Federer got to love-40. But Berdych saved all three of those break points — with a service winner at 135 mph, a forehand, and a volley — plus a fourth later — with an ace at 131 mph — to hold for 3-all. In the next game, Berdych went ahead 4-3 with the last service break he would need. As for Federer, he won’t even watch this Wimbledon final on TV. He summed up his immediate plans this way: ‘‘Two weeks’ vaca- tion.’’