Section:GDN 1N PaGe:36 Edition Date:190730 Edition:03 Zone: Sent at 29/7/2019 23:59 cYanmaGentaYellowb
••• The Guardian Tuesday 30 July 2019(^36) Sport
Sport
In brief
Tennis
Nadal and Barty top
seeds for Rogers Cup
Rafael Nadal is the top seed for
the Rogers Cup in Montreal while
Ashleigh Barty is the top seed for the
women’s event in Toronto. Nadal is
the highest-ranked player in the fi eld
at No 2 and will be the only member
of the men’s “big three” to play. The
world No 4, Dominic Thiem, is the
second seed. AP
Rugby league
Hull KR cross the city
for double swoop
Hull KR have crossed the city to
make a double signing in a bid to
secure their Super League survival.
They are in a three-way tie for the
bottom spot along with Leeds and
London and have struck deals
for Hull’s Dean Hadley and Jez
Litten as the season enters its
home straight. PA Media
Rugby union
Principality alcohol-free
zone made permanent
The Principality Stadium’s alcohol-
free zone is to be made permanent
following a successful two-year
trial. Fans have given their approval
and the Welsh Rugby Union plans
to introduce an “enhanced and
upgraded” alcohol-free zone in
time for Wales’ match against the
Barbarians in November. PA Media
Results
Football
FRIENDLY MATCHES
Deeping Rangers 1 Peterborough 8; Dover 4 Millwall 2;
Lincoln City 1 Nottingham Forest 1;
Nuneaton Borough 4 Burton Albion 4;
Welling 5 Gillingham 0
SSE AIRTRICITY IRISH PREMIER
Derry City 2 Waterford 0
Tennis
ATP BB&T ATLANTA OPEN (Georgia, US)
Final: A De Minaur (Aus) bt T Fritz (US) 6-3 7-6 (7-2)
ATP GENERALI OPEN (Kitzbühel, Austria)
First round: R Carballés Baena (Sp) bt H Dellien (Bol)
3-6 6-3 6-2; L Sonego (It) bt F Delbonis (Arg) 7-6 (7-4)
6-7 (4-7) 7-6 (7-4); M Bachinger (Ger) bt M Klizan (Svk)
7-6 (7-5) 6-7 (5-7) 7-6 (7-4); D Novak (Aut) bt
J Rodionov (Aut) 6-3 6-4; J Chardy (Fr) bt M Cecchinato (It)
7-6 (10-8) 7-5.
Doubles: First round: P Cuevas & G Durán (Uru/Arg)
bt S Ofner & L Miedler (Aut/Aut) 6-4 7-6 (9-7);
R Jebavy & M Middelkoop (Cz/Neth) bt D Molchanov
& I Zelenay (Ukr/Svk) 6-4 6-3.
ATP & WTA CITI OPEN (Washington, US)
Men: Singles: First round: T Paul (US) bt D Kudla (US) 6-0
6-4; B Fratangelo (US) bt I Karlovic (Cro) 6-4 6-7 (14-16)
7-6 (7-5)
Women: Singles: First round: I Swiatek (Pol) bt O Jabeur
(Tun) 4-6 6-4 6-4; C McHale (US) bt A Pavlyuchenkova
(Rus) 6-2 4-6 7-5.
Doubles: First round: A Kiick & S Vickery (US/US)
bt A Smith & C Morra (US/US).
WTA SILICON VALLEY CLASSIC (San Jose, US)
C Suárez Navarro (Sp) bt M Linette (Pol) 6-3 6-3
Golf
WGC-FEDEX ST JUDE INVITATIONAL (Memphis, US)
Final scores (US unless stated, par 70): 264 B Koepka 68 67
64 65. 267 W Simpson 69 66 68 64. 268 M Leishman (Aus)
69 69 63 67. 269 R McIlroy (NI) 69 67 62 71; T Fleetwood
(Eng) 68 70 65 66; M Fitzpatrick (Eng) 67 64 69 69.
270 J Rahm (Sp) 62 71 68 69. 271 I Poulter (Eng) 66 69 67
- 272 B Horschel 67 66 69 70; B Watson 65 70 68 69.
273 J Rose (Eng) 67 68 70 68.
RENO-TAHOE TOURNAMENT (Reno, Nevada, US)
Final scores (USunless stated, par 72): 47 C Morikawa
13 7 13 14. 44 T Merritt 7 12 18 7. 40 J Chin 9 11 11 9;
R Streb 13 12 10 5. 39 B Burgoon 12 2 10 15. 38 T Hoge
13 8 7 10. 37 C Danielson 5 12 10 10; R Sloan (Can) 10 11
9 7; R Palmer 8 7 14 8; M Laird (Sco) 5 12 11 9.
36 S Muñoz (Col) 4 8 9 15. 35 S Straka (Aut) 1 14 7 13.
34 G McNeill 6 16 2 10; J Teater 10 5 10 9.
Cycling
VOO-TOUR DE WALLONIE (Belgium)
Stage three (La Roche-En-Ardenne-Verviers, 194.2km):
1 D Cimolai (It) Israel Cycling 4hr 40min 43sec;
2 A Capiot (Bel) Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise; 3 B Coquard (Fr)
Vital Concept-B&B Hotels; 4 L Taminiaux (Bel) Wallonie-
Bruxelles; 5 T Van Der Sande (Bel) Lotto Soudal.
Selected others: 44 C Lawless (GB) Ineos at same time.
General classification: 1 L Vliegen (Bel) Wanty-Gobert
13hr 07min 54sec; 2 C Lawless (GB) Ineos at 12sec;
3 D De Bondt (Bel) Corendon-Circus at 13sec;
4 Q Hermans (Bel) Telenet Fidea Lions at 18sec;
5 K Van Rooy (Bel) Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise at same time.
Baseball
MLB
Boston 6 New York Yankees 9; Chicago White Sox 1
Minnesota 11; Cincinnati 3 Colorado 2; Kansas City 9
Cleveland 6; LA Angels 5 Baltimore 4; Miami 5 Arizona 1;
Milwaukee 4 Chicago Cubs 11; New York Mets 8 Pittsburgh
7; Oakland 6 Texas 5; Philadelphia 9 Atlanta 4; San Diego 6
San Francisco 7; Seattle 3 Detroit 2; St Louis 2 Houston 6;
Toronto 9 Tampa Bay 10; Washington 11 LA Dodgers 4.
Fixtures
Football (7.45pm unless stated)
Uefa Champions League
Second qualifying round: Second leg Apoel Nicosia (1)
v Sutjeska (0) (6pm); Basel (2) v PSV (3) (7pm);
Dinamo Zagreb (2) v Saburtalo Tbilisi (0) (7pm);
Maccabi Tel-Aviv (0) v CFR Cluj (1) (6pm); Nomme Kalju (0)
v Celtic (5) (6pm); Olympiacos (0) v Plzen (0) (7.30pm);
Valletta (1) v Ferencvaros (3) (7pm)
Uefa Europa League
Second qualifying round: Second leg F91 Dudelange (2)
v Shkendija (1) (4.55pm); Feronikeli (1) v Slovan Bratislava
(2) (5pm); Lincoln Red Imps (0) v Ararat Armenia (2)
(4.45pm); Suduva (5) v Tre Penne (0) (4.45pm)
Friendly matches
AFC Wimbledon v Crystal Palace; Atalanta v Norwich (7pm);
Bromsgrove v Cheltenham; Burnley v Nice; Hibernian
v Newcastle; Hyde Utd v Rochdale; Kristiansund BK
v Man Utd (6pm); Melksham Tn v Swindon (7.30pm); Real
Madrid v Tottenham (5pm); St Neots Tn v MK Dons (7pm);
Tavistock v Plymouth (7.30pm); Woking v Portsmouth
Cricket
Vitality T20 Blast
South Group The Oval Surrey v Kent (6.30pm)Keeping up with the Jones The England coach, Eddie Jones, directs
proceedings during a World Cup training session in Treviso. Exeter’s Jack Nowell
did not take part after returning home for a medical assessment on an injured
ankle. The RFU said Nowell will continue his rehabilitation in England.DAVID ROGERS/
GETTY IMAGESCycling‘Houdini’ Brailsford
shows durability in
the face of scepticism
The Ineos team principal has
ploughed on through a storm
of criticism to celebrate
a seventh win in eight ToursJeremy Whittle
ParisO
n a corner of the Place
de la Concorde on
Sunday night Michal
Kwiatkowski dropped
his bike, sat down on
the cobblestones and
tucked into hot pizza and cold beer.
The former world champion,
also winner of the Milan-San Remo
and the Amstel Gold Race, went
unnoticed as jubilant Colombian
fans swarmed around the Ineos
team’s bus and gazed adoringly at his
teammate Egan Bernal as he waved
from the top step of the podium on
the Champs Élysées.
Watching on, the team’s
billionaire owner, Jim Ratcliff e,
could enjoy the fi rst fruits of his
£40m investment in cycling, only
four months after Team Ineos had
been created. It had been a gamble
worth taking.
Ratcliff e and the Ineos team
principal, Dave Brailsford, are
kindred spirits, both knights of
the realm, both maligned by the
media, both questioned by theestablishment over their ethics and
both pursued by trolls and sceptics.
Brailsford has become the
Houdini of cycling. Little more than
a year ago, after a damning report
by the DCMS openly questioned his
credibility, his stock had fallen so
low this newspaper described his
promise to win the Tour de France
clean as “an empty pledge”, while
others called for his resignation
and the revoking of his knighthood.
Undaunted, he has ploughed on
regardless. Brailsford now seems
to accept that haters gonna hate,
whether you win or lose.
Seven Tour wins in eight years,
with four diff erent riders, would
have been unthinkable less than a
decade ago, when Team Sky fi rst
rocked up at the Tour de France.
Now a Brailsford-led Tour success
is almost regarded as routine and,
as the 2019 Tour ended, Bernal’s
victory barely raised eyebrows. It is
almost as if Jiff y bags, salbutamol
investigations and mystery
testosterone deliveries never
existed.
Holding court in a Colombian
football jersey in the Parisian dusk,
Brailsford was bullish. “Tough
times don’t last,” he said, “but
tough people do. You can’t do this
job without a thick skin. In sports
management you need to be resilient
and decide what’s important to you
and what you are prepared to takeon board. It takes me back to my
upbringing in a Welsh slate mining
village. They were tough guys, those
miners, and you learn good values
from them which have stood me in
good stead.”
His latest Tour win may be seen
by some as payback for all the
criticism but Brailsford dismissed
the suggestion that he had been
vindicated. “I got to the point where
I felt life is for looking forward. You
can look back and be angry or bitter
but leading a group of other people
to achieve something is a much
happier place to be.
“During the Tour last year I was
angry. I felt like I was in a fi ght the
whole time, I was stewing. Maybe
age helps but this year I’ve felt
a lot calmer: I don’t feel any less
competitive but I’ve been more
measured and I’ve stopped fi ghting
everybody.
“You get some people in life who
are haters. They will fi nd something
to hate all the time. But if you look
at the successful people in life, they
are not the haters. If you want to be
a winner, hating is not the way to
operate, to go about it.”
He may insist that Ineos remains
a British team at heart but the next
generation of Grand Tour winners
churned out by Brailsford are more
likely to come from Colombia or
Ecuador, than Kilburn or Cardiff.
“When we started the team, therewas a very Anglo-Saxon way about
it,” he said. “You are going to do it
our way, no debate about it, which
is naive when you have Colombians
and Spanish staff in the team.
“ The best way to do it is to
understand other people’s culture,
other people’s views and make them
feel comfortable and help them
perform to the best of their ability.”
Brailsford said that his youthful
experiences of trying to break into
European cycling have given him an
insight into Bernal’s needs. “When
I was young and I came to live in
France it was the loneliest period of
my life. I had made a commitment to
come here and I dared not go back as
a failure, even though I was hating it.
“I was really lonely and I realised
I had to learn French and talk to
somebody. Very slowly I integrated
into the French culture. That
experience stuck with me.”
But while the 22-year-old Bernal
has quickly established himself as
the hottest property in the sport and
the future face of Ineos, the sands
of time are catching up with Geraint
Thomas. After four crashes in a
month, a crammed build- up and a
lack of racing miles, the Welshman
endured a bitter-sweet Tour.
He was gracious in defeat but
privately he was said to be distraught
at his second place. In the context of
his season fi nishing the runner-up
to his teammate was no mean feat
but he wore the expression of a man
who realised he had missed his last
opportunity.
Yet for all Brailsford’s defi ance,
Thomas’s graciousness and Bernal’s
wide-eyed wonder, the 2019 Tour
will be remembered as a Tour à
l’ancienne, when risk, fl air and
panache, personifi ed by Julian
Alaphilippe and Thibaut Pinot,
returned to the biggest race in
cycling.▲ Dave Brailsford said, ‘Tough times
don’t last but tough people do’РЕЛИЗ ПОДГОТОВИЛА ГРУППА "What's News" VK.COM/WSNWS