Teuns Stage 6 while Ciccone takes overall lead
Matt Kuchar shot an 8-under 63 on to share the lead with three players in a low-scoring opening round at the Scottish Open in North Berwick. Rory McIlroy and Justin Thomas, the highest-ranked players in the field, opened with 67s — a score only slightly better than the field average on a day when 118 players broke par at The Renaissance Club, which was softened by heavy early-morning rain. Kuchar, who has two previous top-four finishes at the Scottish Open, made two eagles on his first nine and ran off four birdies in five holes to reach 9 under before bogeying his last hole of the day, the par-3 ninth. He was joined atop the leaderboard by Romain Wattel, Nino Bertasio and Edoardo Molinari. The leading three players not exempt for the British Open who finish inside the top 10 will earn spots in the field next week at Royal Portrush. Wattel, Bertasio and Molinari — whose brother Francesco is the defending champion — have yet to qualify. Lee Slattery, Erik Van Rooyen, Thomas Pieters, Andy Sullivan, Jamie Donaldson, Kalle Samooja and Thomas Aiken had 64s. Henrik Stenson and Ian Poulter were among those at 65. Rickie Fowler, who won at nearby Gullane in 2015, struggled to a 71.
Alena Sharp of Canada and Youngin Chun of South Korea shared the Marathon Classic lead at 7-under 64, a stroke ahead of Stacy Lewis and three others at Highland Meadows Golf Club in Sylvania, Ohio. The 38-year-old Sharp, winless on the LPGA Tour, had eight birdies and a bogey. The 19-year-old Chun, also seeking her first LPGA Tour victory, had a bogey-free round. Lewis won the last of her 12 LPGA Tour titles in 2017. She was born in nearby Toledo. Azahara Munoz, Caroline Masson and Jenny Haglund matched Lewis at 65. Lexi Thompson was at 66 with U.S. Women’s Open champion Jeongeun Lee6, Carlota Ciganda and Clariss Guce.
Steve Stricker topped the Bridgestone Senior Players Championship leaderboard at 5 under with a hole to play when the first round was suspended for the day because of lightning. Coming off a victory two weeks ago in the U.S. Senior Open at Norte Dame, Stricker had a hole-in-one on the 184-yard, par-3 seventh at Firestone Country Club — the longtime home of a World Golf Championships event and previously the World Series of Golf. Stricker is seeking his third straight major victory on the PGA Tour Champions, a run that began with the Regions Tradition.
Champagney, France — Two Tour de France rookies stole the show on the first mountain stage, with Dylan Teuns of Belgium winning Stage 6 and Giulio Ciccone of Italy taking the overall race lead on Thursday.
Geraint Thomas, the defending champion, also rode strongly, going some way to answer questions about his fitness after he crashed out of the Tour de Suisse in June. Thomas rode in fourth at the top of the terrible climb to the Planche des Belles Filles ski station in the woody Vosges mountains of eastern France.
But the severity of the ascent, with a final 24% incline and an unpaved section that kicked up clouds of dust, torpedoed other main contenders for overall victory in Paris on July 28. Some riders were so exhausted at the top that race workers had to help them stay upright on their bikes after they crossed the line.
One of the big losers of the day was French rider Romain Bardet, a podium finisher in 2016 and 2017, who cracked and rode in 1 minute, 9 seconds after Thomas. He suffered the added indignity of having his chain jump on the line, immobilizing him. Now 2:08 behind Thomas overall, Bardet will be hard-pressed to make up that deficit on even harder climbs to come in the Alps and Pyrenees.
Vincenzo Nibali, the 2014 Tour champion from Italy who also won the stage to La Planche des Belles Filles that year, came undone this time. He lost 51 seconds to Thomas on the climb and is well down the overall rankings in 20th place, 1:07 behind Thomas.
Teuns and Ciccone, both racing their first Tour, were rewarded for their enterprise and endurance on the climb and for having been part of a breakaway of 14 riders that sped away from the pack early in the 160.5-kilometer (100-mile) trek from Mulhouse that took the Tour up six climbs before hitting the last and hardest one.
At the top of that final ascent, Teuns and Ciccone were the two survivors of their breakaway group, fighting head-tohead for the win.
Ciccone cracked first on the eye-poppingly steep incline, as Teuns cranked on ahead of him to the line.
“It was really hard. A man-to-man fight,” Teuns said. “I finished it off. It was amazing.”
But Ciccone got a delightful consolation prize, in the shape of the yellow jersey. “It’s an incredible day. I can’t grasp what’s happening,” the Italian said.
Having raced in the Giro d’Italia in May, where he won a stage, the 24-yearold came to the Tour to bank some experience. The yellow jersey was never in his plans. “It’s strange but super good,” he said. The last three riders to hold the yellow jersey at the top of the Planche des Belles Filles all went on to win in Paris: Bradley Wiggins in 2012; Nibali in 2014; Chris Froome in 2017.
But Ciccone doesn’t expect to follow in their footsteps. His Trek-Segafredo team is built around Australian rider Richie Porte, who also got dropped by Thomas but limited the damage, riding in just 9 seconds after the Welshman.
Another sign that Thomas isn’t hampered by his crash in June was that he also finished ahead of Egan Bernal, his teammate at Ineos who could yet become one of his main challengers for the Tour title.
Overall, Thomas climbed to fifth overall, 49 seconds behind Ciccone and leapfrogging Bernal, in sixth and now 4 seconds behind Thomas.