Chaves wins Giro 6th stage
Yates earns overall leader’s pink jersey Prominent trainer gets life ban over doping scandal
Left to right: Action shots taken during the tournament. NICOLOSI, Italy, May 10, (AFP): Colombian Esteban Chaves, of the Mitchelton team, won a thrilling sixth stage of the Giro d’Italia ahead of teammate Simon Yates on Thursday that saw Britain’s Chris Froome lose more time to his pink jersey rivals.
Chaves, taking his second Giro stage win, finished just ahead of Britain’s Yates, whose late surge to join the 28-year-old Colombian earned him the overall leader’s pink jersey.
FDJ’s Thibaut Pinot finished third, 26 seconds behind the leading pair, after a 164km ride between Caltanissetta and the summit finish at Etna, with Froome finishing in the same time as the Frenchman.
There was suspense all the way as both Mitchelton riders approached the finish line, but in the end Yates sat up to allow Chaves to savour the stage victory. “Chaves had been out on the road all day, so he deserved the stage win,” said Yates, who takes the pink jersey from Australian Rohan Dennis of BMC.
Chaves was part of a 28-rider escape group, which fell apart at the foot of Sicily’s Mount Etna, the highest volcano in Europe.
After a series of attacks and counter-attacks on the way up to Etna, the Colombian climbing specialist pulled away from his rivals with 5.5 km to race.
With Chaves confidently ahead on his own, Yates bided his time amid a series of further skirmishes
MELBOURNE, May 10, (AFP): Prominent horse trainer Robert Smerdon was banned for life Thursday along with two stablehands over a major Australian doping scandal involving more than 100 races over several years.
Two other trainers, Stuart Webb and Tony Vasil, were handed suspensions for three and four years respectively while three others got lighter punishments.
Smerdon and stablehand Greg Nelligan were found by a Racing Victoria investigation to be the masterminds of the scam, with all those involved linked to the Aquanita Racing stable.
In one of Australia’s biggest horse-racing controversies, the eight were convicted by the Racing Appeals and Disciplinary Board of an unprecedented 271 breaches of race-day rules between 2010-17.
Most of the offences related to dosing horses with a banned mixture of sodium bicarbonate, or baking soda, which helps reduce the build-up of lactic acid and improves performance.
Judge John Bowman said at a hearing in Melbourne’s County Court on Tuesday that it was “probably the biggest scandal and the most widespread investigation in the history of Australian racing”.