Marcel Kittel wins Tour de France Stage 6, tightens sprint standings (video)

By Nick ZaccardiJul 6, 2017, 11:43 AM EDT

German Marcel Kittel won a bunched sprint finish for the second time in the first six stages of the Tour de France on Thursday.

Kittel edged France’s Arnaud Demare and German Andre Greipel as all crossed in 5 hours, 5 minutes, 34 seconds in Troyes. It’s Kittel’s 11th career Tour stage win.

There were no significant changes in the overall standings. Chris Froome, a three-time Tour champ, still leads by 12 seconds over teammate Geraint Thomas.

Demare, the Stage 4 winner, kept his lead over Kittel in the green-jersey standings, thanks in part to points from an intermediate sprint earlier in Thursday’s stage.

Kittel cut Demare’s standings lead from 40 to 27 points.

Nobody left in the field has captured a sprint classification title with five-time winner Peter Sagan thrown out of the Tour for making contact with 2011 winner Mark Cavendish on Tuesday. Cavendish crashed and broke a shoulder blade, forcing his abandon from the Tour.

An appeal by Sagan’s team to the Court of Arbitration for Sport was rejected Thursday.

TOUR: Results/Standings | Highlights | Broadcast Schedule

Overall Standings
1. Chris Froome (GBR) — 23:44:33
2. Geraint Thomas (GBR) — +:12
3. Fabio Aru (ITA) — +:14
4. Dan Martin (IRL) — +:25
5. Richie Porte (AUS) — +:39
7. Romain Bardet (FRA) — +:47
8. Alberto Contador (ESP) — +:52
9. Nairo Quintana (COL) — +:54

Friday’s Stage 7 is a flat, 134-mile trip from Troyes to Nuits-Saint-Georges in eastern France. It should feature another bunched sprint to the finish ahead of a summit finish Saturday.

NBC Sports Gold coverage starts at 6 a.m. ET. NBCSN’s coverage starts at 7:30 a.m.

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Marcell Jacobs still sidelined, misses another race with Fred Kerley

By OlympicTalkMay 31, 2023, 7:07 AM EDT

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Olympic 100m champion Marcell Jacobs of Italy will miss a second consecutive clash with world 100m champion Fred Kerley, withdrawing from Friday’s Diamond League meet in Florence.

Jacobs, 28, has not recovered from the nerve pain that forced him out of last Sunday’s Diamond League meet in Rabat, Morocco, according to Italy’s track and field federation.

In his absence, Kerley’s top competition will be fellow American Trayvon Bromell, the world bronze medalist, and Kenyan Ferdinand Omanyala, the world’s fastest man this year at 9.84 seconds. Kerley beat both of them in Rabat.

The Florence Diamond League airs live on Peacock on Friday from 2-4 p.m. ET.

Jacobs has withdrawn from six scheduled head-to-heads with Kerley dating to May 2022 due to a series of health issues since that surprise gold in Tokyo.

Kerley, primarily a 400m sprinter until the Tokyo Olympic year, became the world’s fastest man in Jacobs’ absence. He ran a personal best 9.76 seconds, the world’s best time of 2022, at last June’s USA Track and Field Outdoor Championships. Then he led a U.S. sweep of the medals at July’s worlds.

Jacobs’ next scheduled race is a 100m at the Paris Diamond League on June 9. Kerley is not in that field, but world 200m champion Noah Lyles is.

The last time the reigning Olympic and world men’s 100m champions met in a 100m was the 2012 London Olympic final between Usain Bolt and Yohan Blake. From 2013 to 2017, Bolt held both titles, then retired in 2017 while remaining reigning Olympic champion until Jacobs’ win in Tokyo, where Kerley took silver.

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At the French Open, a Ukrainian mom makes her comeback

By OlympicTalkMay 31, 2023, 7:02 AM EDT

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Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina, once the world’s third-ranked tennis player, is into the French Open third round in her first major tournament since childbirth.

Svitolina, 28, swept 2022 French Open semifinalist Martina Trevisan of Italy, then Australian qualifier Storm Hunter 2-6, 6-3, 6-1 on Wednesday to reach the last 32 at Roland Garros. France’s top player, fifth seed Caroline Garcia, or 56th-ranked Russian Anna Blinkova is next.

FRENCH OPEN DRAWS: Women | Men | Broadcast Schedule

Svitolina made at least one major quarterfinal every year from 2017 through 2021, including the semifinals at Wimbledon and the U.S. Open in 2019. She married French player Gael Monfils one week before the Tokyo Olympics, then won a singles bronze medal. (Monfils won his French Open first-round five-setter after midnight, then was on hand for Svitolina’s 11 a.m. start Wednesday.)

Svitolina played her last match before maternity leave on March 24, 2022, one month after Russia invaded her country. She gave birth to daughter Skai on Oct. 15.

Svitolina returned to competition in April. Last week, she won the tournament preceding the French Open, sweeping Blinkova to improve to 17-3 in her career in finals. She’s playing on a protected ranking of 27th after her year absence and, now, on a seven-match win streak.

“It was always in my head the plan to come back, but I didn’t put any pressure on myself, because obviously with the war going on, with the pregnancy, you never know how complicated it will go,” she said. “I’m as strong as I was before, maybe even stronger, because I feel that I can handle the work that I do off the court, and match by match I’m getting better. Also mentally, because mental can influence your physicality, as well.”

Svitolina said she’s motivated by goals to attain before she retires from the sport and to help Ukraine, such as donating her prize money from last week’s title in Strasbourg.

“These moments bring joy to people of Ukraine, to the kids as well, the kids who loved to play tennis before the war, and now maybe they don’t have the opportunity,” she said. “But these moments that can motivate them to look on the bright side and see these good moments and enjoy themselves as much as they can in this horrible situation.”

Svitolina said that she’s noticed “a lot of rubbish” concerning how tennis is reacting to the war.

“We have to focus on what the main point of what is going on,” she said. “Ukrainian people need help and need support. We are focusing on so many things like empty words, empty things that are not helping the situation, not helping anything.

“I want to invite everyone to focus on helping Ukrainians. That’s the main point of this, to help kids, to help women who lost their husbands because they are at the war, and they are fighting for Ukraine.

“You can donate. Couple of dollars might help and save lives. Or donate your time to something to help people.”

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