Vingegaard set to win Tour de France
Jonas Vingegaard thundered through the last serious test of the Tour de France to increase his overall lead on Saturday and all but guarantee winning cycling’s biggest race.
After three weeks of exhausting racing, the Jumbo-Visma leader dug deep in his reserves to deliver yet another impressive performance in a long time trial in southern France.
Vingegaard, who is not a pure specialist of the race against the clock, could have played it safe given his more than three-minute lead at the start. He, instead, took all the risks on the technical course and had a scare close to the finish when he misjudged a curve and had to brake hard to avoid a crash.
Vingegaard finished the 20th stage in second place 19 seconds behind winner Wout van Aert, his key teammate.
Vingegaard improved on last year’s runner-up finish.
“Since last year, I always believed I could do it and now it’s happened. It’s really incredible. It’s both a relief and I’m just so happy and proud,” he said.
Van Aert crossed the finish line with a blistering average speed of 50.9 kph. The 41.7-kilometer stage from Lacapelle-Marival to Rocamadour was the longest individual time trial since 2014.
With the final day of the race today usually uneventful, Vingegaard will become the first rider from Denmark to win the Tour since 1996, barring a crash.
Vingegaard will carry a lead of 3 minutes, 34 seconds over Pogacar into the final day, a 116-kilometer ride to Paris.
Henderson’s Evian lead down to 2 strokes
Brooke Henderson saw her lead at the Evian Championship reduced to two shots after the third round as the Canadian seeks her
Jonas Vingegaard, in the overall leader’s yellow jersey, crosses the finish line Saturday at the Tour de France.
second major title in Evianles-Bains, France.
Henderson missed a 3-foot putt for birdie at the par-5 18th and had to settle for a 3-under 68 that left her on 17-under, two off the 54hole record for the tourney.
Her only major championship victory came in 2016 at the Women’s PGA Championship.
Former No. 1 So Yeon Ryu, a two-time major winner from South Korea, shot 65 and was alone in second.
Two strokes further back was Sophia Schubert, ranked No. 283 and without a top-50 finish in a major. The American birdied her last four holes for a 66 and was alone in third place.
• Darren Clarke’s bid for a first senior major title wobbled as he lost his overnight two-shot lead at the Senior British Open and Paul Broadhurst pulled level at 9 under overall after the third round.
Clarke needed a birdie on the last hole to catch Broadhurst, who posted a 4-under 66 to Clarke’s 69 at Gleneagles, Scotland.
Clarke dropped shots on the 12th and 13th holes but steadied himself to stay in contention for another trophy after winning the British Open’s Claret Jug in 2011.
But Clarke and Broadhurst
face a tough final round today with New Zealand’s Steven Alker and American Jerry Kelly — both senior major champions — in a tie for third and only one behind them at 8 under.
• Scott Piercy shot a 5-under 66 at rain-soaked TPC Twin Cities in a round that was delayed more than 6½ hours to take a fourstroke lead into the final round of the 3M Open.
• Julien Guerrier moved in sight of his first win on the European tour after shooting 3-under 69 in the third round of the Cazoo Classic to take a one-stroke lead in Southport, England.
Richie Ramsay (67), Jens Dantorp (70) and Paul Waring (72) were tied for second place.
Newgarden wins first IndyCar race at Iowa
Josef Newgarden extended the Team Penske dominance at Iowa Speedway, winning the first race of a weekend doubleheader for his fourth IndyCar win of the season and fourth at Iowa. Newgarden moved from fourth to second in the IndyCar title fight. Will Power swept both poles for the IndyCar doubleheader at Iowa to move within one of Mario Andretti’s all-time record of 67 poles.
• Noah Gragson kept Ty Gibbs at bay in the stretch and held on to win his third Xfinity Series race of the season at Pocono Raceway.
• Zane Smith clinched the regular season NASCAR Truck Series championship and Chandler Smith took the checkered flag at Pocono Raceway.
• Denny Hamlin turned the fastest lap at Pocono Raceway and will lead the field to green today at Pocono Raceway in Long Pond, Pa. Hamlin is joined on the front row by Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Kyle Busch.
• Charles Leclerc used help from Ferrari teammate Carlos Sainz Jr. to beat Formula One leader Max Verstappen and take pole position for the French Grand Prix in Le Castellet.
Sainz had nothing at stake since he was starting from the back of the grid after engine-part changes, so Ferrari used him to give Leclerc a tow on his two runs in Q3.
Leclerc was up by just .008 seconds from Verstappen after his first run. The team worked seamlessly on Leclerc’s second run as he beat his own leading time and finished .3 seconds ahead of Verstappen and .46 clear of Verstappen’s Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez.
Pera wins Hamburg tennis tournament
American Bernarda Pera stunned top-seeded Anett Kontaveit 6-2, 6-4 to win the Hamburg (Germany) European Open for her second title in seven days. The 81st-ranked Pera won in Budapest last week.
• Arkansas Derby winner Cyberknife made a move along the rail to pass previously unbeaten Jack Christopher, then held off Bob Baffert’s Taiba to win the $1 million Haskell Stakes at Monmouth Park.