Dayton Daily News

Hall of Fame:

- GOLF

Ilie Nastase was banned from the Fed Cup and Davis Cup until 2019 because of his comments and bad behavior as Romania’s captain during a Fed Cup tie in April. The ITF also said the 1973 French Open champion will not be able to work in an official capacity until 2021 and fined him $10,000.

Top-seeded John Isner beat Dennis Novikov 6-4, 6-4 to reach the semifinals in Newport, R.I. SALON-DE-PROVENCE,

Edvald Boasson FRANCE — Hagen showed that brawn and speed don’t guarantee victory at the Tour de France. Winners do their homework, too.

Going right around a roundabout while others took the left and longer route proved to be the key that enabled the Norwegian to finally win a stage at this Tour on Friday after two second-place finishes.

Only Boasson Hagen and Germany’s Nikias Arndt took the shorter route. The Norwegian then eliminated the German with a burst of accelerati­on and sped to the line in Salon-de Provence.

Arndt placed second, five seconds back.

Third-place Jens Keukeleire was among those who went left around the roundabout in the last 3 kilometers (under 2 miles) and immediatel­y realized their mistake, as Boasson Hagen motored away.

“That’s when it struck me: We should have taken right,” Keukeleire said. “He’s one of those riders, give him 10 meters and he’s gone.”

It was Boasson Hagen’s third career stage win at the Tour, after his first two in 2011.

Riding at a leisurely pace far behind them, race leader Chris Froome and other top contenders for the yellow jersey were happy to let others contest the victory on the Tour’s longest stage.

Boasson Hagen was part of a 20-man group that Froome and Team Sky gave freedom to escape from the peloton because none of them presented a threat to his overall lead. After two energy-sapping days of climbs in the high Alps, Froome and his rivals had their sights set instead on the time trial today in Marseille that will determine the podium order before the race ends Sunday in Paris.

Froome’s group was still riding as Boasson Hagen celebrated his win. The peloton eventually rolled in more than 12 minutes after Boasson Hagen claimed the first stage win for the Dimension Data team at this tour.

The overall standings remained unchanged at the top, with Froome leading French rider Romain Bardet by 23 seconds and Rigoberto Uran of Colombia by 29 seconds.

With no major difficulti­es, the 222.5-kilometer (138-mile) stage from Embrun in the Alps offered no real opportunit­y for Froome’s rivals to claw back time.

“We could just sit on the wheels and recover a little bit,” Froome said. “Everyone was quite happy to sit back.”

Today’s 22.5-kilometer (14-mile) time-trial course is the last significan­t obstacle between Froome and his fourth Tour victory. He needs to hold only Bardet and Uran at bay, but they could be tempted into taking greater risks to make up time on the course with more than two dozen bends.

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