Froome meets doom
Chris Froome crashed in a chaotic finale to the opening stage of the Tour de France as Fernando Gaviria ended in top spot.
The defending champion was squeezed out on a bend just over five kilometres from the end of the 201km stage to Fontenay-le-Comte.
Colombian Gaviria held off world champion Peter Sagan to become the first man to win his debut stage of a Tour since Fabian Cancellara in 2004 but it was another 51 seconds before Froome crossed the line.
The four- t ime Tour winner came home in a group that included fellow general classi f icat ion hopefuls Adam Yates of Mitchelton-Scott and Richie Porte of BMC, who were also caught up in the chaos.
Scottish canoeing veterans David Florence and Fiona Pennie failed to deliver as the two 35-year- olds bowed out in yesterday’s semi-finals at the slalom World Cup in Augsburg, Bavaria.
A clip on gate 14 cost Florence a two-second time penalty and with it his place in yesterday’s C1 final. He eventually finished 15th.
Pennie was sixth in Krakow but the Crief f paddler was hampered by a lack of practice time on a new-look course.
She struggled to qualify at the second attempt in Friday’s K1 kayak heats and in yesterday’s semis she finished 19th. Pennie said: “I went right past gate 11 and had to go back for it, taking eight seconds or so.”
Scotland’s female cricketers got their ICC World T20 global qualifying campaign off to the perfect start yesterday as they thumped Uganda by nine wickets in Holland.
Kathryn Bryce’s side will go into today’s second group match with Ireland on a high after their opening victory in Amstelveen.
The Ugandans could not deal with the Scots’ bowling.
Sisters Sarah and Kathryn Bryce came together and put on a 28-run partnership as the Saltires won with 13 overs and one ball left.