SLOVENIA’S POGACAR WINS A COVID-DEFYING TOUR
In a stunning performance for the ages, Tour de France rookie Tadej Pogacar won cycling's showpiece race Sunday on the eve of his 22nd birthday, becoming the secondyoungest winner of the 117year-old event that this year braved — and overcame — France's worsening coronavirus epidemic.
With a yellow face mask to match the race winner's yellow jersey, Pogacar stood atop the podium backlit by the pink hues of dusk, transformed from promising prodigy into cycling superstar, the youngest winner since World War II and the first from Slovenia. While the mask hid his smiles, the creases around his eyes gave them away.
“This is just the top of the top,” he said. “It's been an amazing three-week adventure.“
His victory was remarkable, too, for the way in which he sealed it: at the last possible moment, on the penultimate stage before Sunday's finish on Paris' Champs-elysees.
During the cycling marathon over all five of France's mountain ranges and 3,482 punishing kilometers (2,164 miles), Pogacar held the race lead and the iconic yellow jersey for just one stage — the last and most important one into Paris, with a yellow bike to match.
Pogacar KO'D the race and Slovenian countryman Primoz Roglic by snatching away the jersey that he'd worn for 11 days, in a highdrama time trial Saturday.
WNBA
The opener of the WNBA playoff series between the Seattle Storm and the Minnesota Lynx at Bradenton, Fla., was postponed nearly 90 minutes before its scheduled tipoff because of inconclusive COVID-19 test results for Storm players. Game 1 will now be played Tuesday.
• Jasmine Thomas had a career-high 31 points,
Alyssa Thomas scored 18, and the Connecticut Sun pulled away early and cruised to a 87-62 win over the Las Vegas Aces in Game of 1 of the best-of-five WNBA semifinals.
Golf
Georgia Hall won the Cambia Portland (Ore.) Classic for her first LPGA Tour victory in the United States, beating Ashleigh Buhai with a par on the second hole of a playoff.
• Jim Furyk joined Arnold Palmer and Bruce Fleisher as the only players to win their first two PGA Tour Champions starts, beating Jerry Kelly with a birdie on the first hole of a playoff in the Pure Insurance Championship at Pebble Beach.
Soccer
Leicester sent out a warning to Premier League rivals as midfielder Dennis Praet's thunderbolt sealed a 4-2 win over Burnley.
• Sadio Mane scored twice as Liverpool exploited Chelsea's frailties to win 2-0, a second successive triumph at the start of the Premier League title defense.
• Kacper Przybylko scored late in the first half and early in the second to help the Philadelphia Union (7-2-3) beat the 10-man Montreal Impact (5-6-1) 4-1 at Red Bull Arena.
• Cole Bassett and Jonathan Lewis scored and the Colorado Rapids beat the LA Galaxy 2-0 late Saturday night in MLS play. Colorado (4-4-4) rebounded from a 4-1 loss to FC Dallas on Wednesday night. The Galaxy (4-4-3) had their sixmatch unbeaten streak snapped.
• Rubio Rubin scored three first-half goals as the San Diego Loyal (6-4-4) held on for a 3-2 victory at the Phoenix Rising FC (8-3-2) in USL Championship action late Saturday night.
Tennis
Exactly two weeks after he was defaulted from the U.S. Open, and a day after he was warned by the chair umpire for breaking his racket in a fit of rage, Novak Djokovic received an obscenity warning midway through a 7-5, 6-3 win over Casper Ruud in the Italian Open semifinals in Rome. In Djokovic's 10th Rome final — he has won four — he'll face eighth-seeded Diego Schwartzman, who edged 12th-seeded Denis Shapovalov 6-4, 5-7, 7-6 (4) in a match that lasted 3 hours, 15 minutes.
In the women's final, topseeded Simona Halep will face second-seeded Karolina Pliskova, the defending champion.
Motorsports
Toyota Gazoo's No. 8 car comfortably won the 24 Hours Le Mans in France by five laps from Rebellion No. 1 to secure a third straight victory in the prestigious endurance race.
It was also a third consecutive win for Swiss driver Sebastien Buemi and Japan's Kazuki Nakajima driving. Brendon Hartley was the other driver, having replaced two-time Formula One champion Fernando Alonso.