Onley wins stage five of Tour de Suisse

Briton Oscar Onley won the fifth stage of the Tour de Suisse in an uphill sprint finish.The 22-year-old Picnic PostNL rider edged out UAE Team Emirates XRG's Joao Almeida on the 183.5 km (114-mile) mountainous stage from La Punt to Sant Maria.Decathlon–AG2R La Mondiale's Felix Gall was third, 23 seconds behind Onley.Arkea–B&B Hotels rider Kevin Vauquelin finished fourth to take the overall lead from Romain Gregoire, who was more than six minutes behind Onley.Vauquelin leads fellow Frenchman Julian Alaphilippe by 29 seconds, with Almeida third and Onley fourth, one minute 21 seconds off the lead."I felt good and just gave it a go on the last climb," said Scot Onley.
"I don't win often and I've had a quite a few podiums so far this year, or quite close results, so to pull it off today is really nice for myself and my team-mates, because they do a really good job every day. Today was no different."It's nice to be able to pay them back now and again."The stage was held in memory of Gino Mader, who died at the age of 26 after a crash in the 2023 race.A statue was unveiled near the Albula Pass, the location of the crash.Stage six of the eight-day race is a 186.7km (116 miles) flat route from Chur to Neuhausen am Rheinfall.

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Daily Mail​

4 hours ago

• Daily Mail​

Close Michael Schumacher friend paints sad picture of what F1 legend's life has now become after horror ski accident in 2013 left him with brain damage

Michael Schumacher 's former team boss Flavio Briatore has offered a poignant glimpse into the F1 legend's private world. He says he chooses to remember Schumacher as he was, rather than dwell on the heartbreaking reality of his condition more than 10 years after his devastating ski crash. Schumacher has not been seen publicly since suffering catastrophic brain injuries during a skiing accident in the French Alps in December 2013. The seven-time world champion, now 56, has been under 24-hour care at his family home in Switzerland ever since. In a rare comment, Briatore — who oversaw Schumacher's rise at Benetton and remains close to his wife, Corinna — reflected on how he chooses to remember the F1 great, rather than focus on his current condition. 'If I close my eyes, I see him smiling after a win,' he told Corriere della Sera. 'I prefer to remember him like that rather than him just lying on a bed. Corinna and I talk often, though.' The stark image of Schumacher 'just lying on a bed' has reinforced the sense of tragedy surrounding his long struggle, with fans and even some friends largely kept in the dark due to the family's unwavering commitment to privacy. Briatore's comments echo those of his ex-wife, Elisabetta Gregoraci, who claimed in an earlier interview that Schumacher is unable to speak and is visited by only a handful of people. 'Michael doesn't speak, he communicates with his eyes,' she said. 'Only three people can visit him and I know who they are.' That aligns with reports from German journalist Felix Gorner, who said earlier this year the F1 icon is 'completely dependent' on caregivers and 'can no longer express himself verbally.' Despite the silence, a small circle of confidants continues to visit Schumacher — among them Jean Todt, the man who worked alongside him during his dominant Ferrari years. 'I see him regularly and with affection, him and his family. Our bond goes beyond the past work,' Todt told La Repubblica. 'It is part of my life, which today is very far from Formula 1.' Todt has previously revealed he watches races with Schumacher, even if things are no longer as they once were. In 2023, he told L'Equipe: '[He] is simply not the Michael he used to be. He is different and is wonderfully guided by his wife and children, who protect him.' The Schumacher family's desire to shield him from public view has led to confusion — and at times, misinformation. Last year, reports circulated that Schumacher had attended daughter Gina-Maria's wedding in Majorca, but that was swiftly debunked. 'Unfortunately, from what I understand, that was all A1 fake news and no truth in it,' said former Benetton team-mate Johnny Herbert. Nonetheless, the family continue to involve Michael in moments of meaning. Earlier this year, it emerged that he had contributed to a helmet signed by every living F1 world champion for Sir Jackie Stewart's Race Against Dementia charity. 'It is wonderful that Michael could sign the helmet in this worthy cause,' Stewart told the Mail Sport. 'His wife helped him, and it completed the set of every single champion still with us.' Schumacher's wife Corinna also gave a rare glimpse into their life together in the 2021 Netflix documentary Schumacher, explaining how the family remain united around him. 'Michael is here. Different, but he's here, and that gives us strength, I find,' she said. 'We live together at home. We do therapy. We do everything we can to make Michael better and to make sure he's comfortable… and no matter what, I will do everything I can. We all will.'

The Guardian

5 hours ago

• The Guardian

Cult of celebrity feels like a fundamental tension at the heart of the game

It is in the details that the truest picture emerges. Quite aside from the endless politicking, the forever-war with Uefa, the consorting with autocrats and the intriguing broadcast rights and partnership deals, there has been, not a new, but growing sense during the Club World Cup that Fifa doesn't really get football. There is something cargo-cultish about it, creating outcomes without engaging in processes. Perhaps that is inevitable with Gianni Infantino's style of leadership; like all populists, he is big on vision and short on practical reality. It was there in the expansion of the World Cup to 48 teams. OK: how will the tournament be organised? Sixteen groups of three. Won't that mean either lots of potential dead rubbers (one team from each group goes through) or opportunities for collusion (two go through)? Oh, actually, the four-team groups at the 2022 have worked so well, we'll go with 12 groups of four. Sure, but then you have eight best third-place teams going through which: a) diminishes jeopardy; and b) undermines sporting integrity by giving an advantage to teams in later groups because they have a clearer idea of what is needed to progress, again offering opportunities for collusion. No response, because all that matters is a bigger tournament equals more votes for the president and (in the short term) more revenue. One of the oddest aspects of the Club World Cup has been the way players are greeted on to the pitch individually, like swimmers before an Olympic final. At Ulsan HD v Mamelodi Sundowns, they may as well have gone on and introduced the crowd as well. Who needs this? Who wants this? Why does the first player out have to hang around for several minutes waiting for the 22nd player? For well over a century the two teams have walked out side by side. This has always been part of the gladiatorial ritual of football. This is the contest: one team against another. But as Fifa has sought desperately to improve attendances and stimulate interest, its focus has become more and more on the individual. That is why there was all that talk, much of it emanating from Infantino, about Cristiano Ronaldo potentially securing a short-term deal with a qualifier, and why qualifying was gerrymandered to ensure the presence of Lionel Messi's Inter Miami. But there is a potentially self-defeating short-termism to this. While the desire to see Messi is entirely understandable, especially as he enters the late autumn of his career, Inter Miami are sixth in MLS's Western Conference, their form having disintegrated since the end of March. From an MLS point of view, the ideal scenario would have been for one of their sides to beat a storied opponent, perhaps push on to the quarter-finals, generating interest in North America's domestic league. The best way of doing that would have been to have the best-possible MLS representation, but Inter Miami are in no sense one of the best three sides. As it is, none of the MLS sides won their opening game, although Porto's dismal form and Messi's dead-ball ability may get Inter Miami through anyway. It might also be pointed out that Auckland City are not the best side in New Zealand, nor are Red Bull Salzburg one of the best 12 sides in Europe, but the consequences are greater for the host nation, particularly when there is apparently so much potential for growth. The celebritisation of football is not new, but it is intensifying. When Paul Pogba returned to Manchester United in 2016 and, rather than speaking of the Premier League or becoming a European champion, said he dreamed of winning the Ballon d'Or, it felt shocking, a player elevating his own interests and a silly bauble above the glory of team success. But that has become normal. Improving his Ballon d'Or chances is one of the reasons Neymar left Barcelona for Paris Saint-Germain; even Trent Alexander-Arnold mentioned the Ballon d'Or as a motivation for joining Real Madrid (good luck with that from right-back). Sign up to Football Daily Kick off your evenings with the Guardian's take on the world of football after newsletter promotion The marketing of football is almost all focused on individuals. That's been particularly so at the Club World Cup, but it is true of almost every competition. Even the way lineups are introduced on Sky's Premier League coverage, with the players performing a fake celebration, seems designed to introduce them as characters. Yet there is a tension there. While individual players are celebrated, the increasing use of data means image and self-projection may never have mattered less. The stats will find the talent, even if the talent has no gift for self-promotion. At the same time, the best teams have never been so cohesive, so integrated. PSG provide a useful case study. For years they signed stars with seemingly little thought to how they might play together. Although their immense resources won them the French league, they habitually choked in Europe. Then there was a change of approach, the money was spent not on Neymar and Messi but on players on the way up who still had a hunger for success and who could play together. The result was the Champions League and, despite their defeat by Botafogo, possibly the inaugural world title in the expanded format. If it was conceived as a two-stage strategy – build the brand through celebrity, then win the actual competitions – it has worked to perfection; in reality, it's probably trial and error that has brought them to this point. At Real Madrid, meanwhile, Florentino Pérez still seems locked in his galáctico vision of football, insisting on adding Kylian Mbappé to a squad that already contained Vinícius Júnior and Rodrygo, resulting in imbalance and an expensive downturn in form. This goes deeper than transfer policies, though. This feels like a fundamental tension at the heart of the game. What, after all, is success in modern football? Manchester City for the past decade have been a much better football team than PSG, and yet they have nothing like the brand awareness. Is success winning trophies, or making money? Is it winning trophies or becoming more famous? Is it winning trophies or marketing the individual? The individual walk-ons only blur the lines further, suggest organisers who struggle with the concept that football, perhaps more than any other sport, is a game of the team.

The Independent

12 hours ago

• The Independent

Beth Mead urges England to feed off the pressure of European title defence

Beth Mead has challenged England to use pressure as fuel when they kick off their European title defence against France. The Lionesses squad travelling to Switzerland this summer is very different from the one that lifted the trophy on home soil at Euro 2022. Seven members of Sarina Wiegman's group have never played in a major tournament and England will be defending a major title for the first time. 'There's a little bit of pressure that comes with it but I think it's a free adrenaline injection, pump it into your veins,' said forward Mead, who won the Golden Boot after scoring six goals at the 2022 Euros, where she was also named player of the tournament. 'We've been there, we've done it, we need to bottle that energy up and (bring) what we brought last time. It's a completely different tournament and teams look very different but we know what we're about and we've got to concentrate on being the best version of ourselves.' England face Jamaica in a Leicester send-off on June 29 before travelling to their Switzerland base in Zurich. They kick off their title defence against France on July 5, then take on 2017 champions the Netherlands. The group stage concludes in St Gallen against Wales, who have qualified for the first major tournament in their history. Mead is relieved team-building activities this time around have not included a camping trip – a memorable Lionesses excursion under Phil Neville in 2019. 'I think I slept two hours and then (got woken up) by the geese around the complex,' Mead recalls. 'That wasn't my favourite team-building activity. I think Toni Duggan snuck back into the hotel for the night instead.' The group did host a movie night at their last camp – the thriller Sinners, starring Bournemouth minority owner Michael B Jordan – and this time opted for a graffiti painting session to, Mead notes, 'express yourself' and 'show how bad we all are at art'. Much has also changed in Mead's personal and professional life since lifting the trophy in 2022 – her mother, June, died from ovarian cancer the following winter, shortly after Mead was named Sports Personality of the Year. This year, she lifted the Champions League trophy alongside her Arsenal team-mates for the first time. 'I feel like I'm in a good place individually,' Mead added. 'I know I've got an amazing team around me. I've got very good connections with players in the team. 'All I can do is do my best. We can all only do our best and take our chances when we're given them. 'I'd like to think I've got quite a good amount of experience to head into the tournament and I've played against a lot of the teams that we're going to come up against and hopefully that experience can help within the game. 'But I'm excited. I'm a little bit older than I was last time, but it doesn't take the excitement away and it still feels like a first tournament even though I've obviously been very lucky to go to quite a few. 'This is a new challenge, new competition, very different teams. I can't wait to get started.'