Dominant Yates extends his lead

SimOn yaTES tightened his grip on cycling’s Giro d’italia yesterday by storming to a brilliant victory in stage 15. The 25-year-old from Bury attacked 18km from the finish to leave his rivals in the dust and claim his third stage win. yates started the day with a 1min 24sec advantage over Dutch rider and defending champion Tom Dumoulin, who battled hard to finish third behind miguel angel Lopez. His latest triumph means yates extended that lead over Dumoulin to 2min 11sec ahead of tomorrow’s key time trial. ‘i am really emotional,’ said yates. ‘i gave everything. it’s a good gap.’

ADRIAN OTAEGUI has set his sights on a Ryder Cup debut after claiming his second European Tour golf title with victory over France’s Benjamin Hebert in the final of the Belgian Knockout in Antwerp. Asked about his chances of qualifying for the Ryder Cup team, which will be captained by Thomas Bjorn in Paris, the Spaniard quipped: ‘Thomas, if you’re looking at me, I like match play! There’s still a lot of the season to go, but yeah, I’m looking for the Ryder Cup.’