Démare ‘wins’ Giro 6th stage
SCALEA, Italy, May 12, (AP): French cyclist Arnaud Démare beat Caleb Ewan in a photo finish Thursday to win a second successive Giro d’Italia stage, while Juan Pedro López kept hold of the leader’s pink jersey after the race’s sixth leg.
In a contest between three of cycling’s very best sprinters, Démare was behind both Ewan and Mark Cavendish as they approached the finish. But Démare used the slip stream behind Ewan to perfection to pull alongside his rival just before the line and then threw himself forward to edge his rival by the smallest of margins. Cavendish was about half a bike length behind in third.
None of them celebrated immediately after crossing the line, unsure who had got the victory. Cavendish was talking to Démare when the results were confirmed and hugged the Groupama-FDJ rider.
It was a seventh Giro stage win for Démare, more than any other Frenchman.
Most of the overall contenders crossed the line safely in the peloton at the end of the flat 192-kilometer (119-mile) route from Palmi to Scalea as the race moved to the Italian mainland following three stages in Hungary and two in Sicily.
López maintained his 39-second advantage over Lennard Kämna. Rein Taaramäe was third, 58 seconds behind López.
There was little action for most of the stage, with the peloton cruising at a slower pace than even the lowest estimates of the race organizers.
CYCLING
Diego Rosa was the lone breakaway rider for almost four hours although he knew he had almost no chance to get the win. Rosa rides for Eolo-Kometa, which is the seconddivision Italian team run by Alberto Contador and Ivan Basso.
The slow pace in the peloton and the lack of eagerness for a breakaway could be partly explained by what awaits the riders on Friday’s seventh stage, a day of almost continuous climbing and descending.
There are hardly any flat sections on the 196-kilometer route from Diamante to Potenza and four categorised climbs.
throws to give Boston the lead.
Antetokounmpo went to the the line with a chance to tie it and made the first, then Portis grabbed the rebound of the second and put it in off the backboard to give Milwaukee its first lead since early in the second quarter.
Smart drove to the basket but Holiday blocked him and came away with the ball, throwing it off Smart while falling out of bounds. Pat Connaughton made a pair of free throws with six seconds left, then Holiday stole the ball from Smart on his desperation dash for a potential game-tying 3-pointer.
Jaylen Brown scored 26 points for Boston.