Kittel eases to win in Tour de France stage
Marcel Kittel had little trouble winning the sixth stage of the Tour de France in a mass sprint finish Thursday with Peter Sagan and Mark Cavendish both out of the race. Kittel required slightly more than five hours to ride the mostly flat 216-kilometre leg from Vesoul to Troyes, and then bent down over his handlebars, close to tears, as he took in the victory. It was his second win in this year’s race and the 11th of his Tour de France career. Chris Froome retained the leader’s yellow jersey. Sagan, the world champion, was disqualified for elbowing Cavendish to the ground two days ago. Cavendish, who has 30 Tour de France wins, broke his shoulder. Houston Astros 7-4 on Thursday in Toronto. Martin led off the sixth inning with a shot to right field — his second long ball in as many days — for his ninth homer of the season. Kendrys Morales added an RBI double and scored twice for the Jays (40-45), who won their third straight. The win also ended Toronto’s five-game losing streak at home in its last series before the all-star break. Francisco Liriano threw six-plus innings in his start against the Astros (58-28), allowing three runs on nine hits and striking out four on a warm summer evening at the Rogers Centre. Love’s last win came at the 2015 Wyndham Championship, which made him the third-oldest winner in PGA Tour history. Defending champion Danny Lee was at 64 along with David Lingmerth, Ben Martin, rookie Xander Schauffele and Canadians Graham DeLaet of Weyburn, Sask., and Nick Taylor of Abbotsford, B.C. A third Canadian, David Hearn of Brantford, Ont., was another shot back at 65.