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SBS Australia
13 hours ago
- Sport
- SBS Australia
Race Centre is the place for all things Tour de France on SBS
SAINT-LARY-SOULAN PLA D'ADET, FRANCE - JULY 13: (L-R) Pavel Sivakov of France, Tadej Pogacar of Slovenia and UAE Team Emirates - Yellow Leader Jersey and Mikel Landa of Spain and Team Soudal Quick-Step compete during the 111th Tour de France 2024, Stage 14 a 151.9km stage from Pau to Saint-Lary-Soulan Pla d'Adet 1653m / #UCIWT / on July 13, 2024 in Saint-Lary-Soulan Pla d'Adet, France. (Photo by) Source: Getty /The place to watch the Tour de France - LIVE, FREE and EXCLUSIVE - plus the fourth edition of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift is right here on SBS or via the SBS On Demand Hub. As we continue to count down the days to the start of the 2025 editions of the Tour de France and Tour de France Femmes, it's crucial to know where you can find everything to help you follow every pedal-stroke. That's why the Race Centre on the SBS Sport website is a Le Tour fan's new best friend, no matter if you're a life member of the couch peloton or just want to see who's winning while on the train to work in July. Launching prior to Stage 1, Race Centre will feature a detailed startlist with every team and rider participating, route profiles of all the stages and up to date stats and rankings throughout the event. Fans will also be able to tap into every kilometre of the action on the road with a live race tracker, where a real-time map of the route will show the peloton's progress from first to last kilometre and a timeline of the key events as they happen. Post-stage results, highlights, interviews and more will be available after the riders cross the line. Make sure to bookmark the Race Centre once it's available, or this article, so you don't miss a single moment of the biggest cycling race in the world while watching along on SBS and SBS On Demand. Watch now Share this with family and friends The SBS Cycling Podcast is a punchy podcast covering the world of professional cycling, coming to you during the Tour de France, Giro d'Italia and Vuelta a España.
Times
a day ago
- Sport
- Times
Oscar Onley shows credentials by beating Tadej Pogacar's lieutenant to line
With just over two weeks until the Tour de France, Britain's 22-year-old Oscar Onley has set out his stall by winning stage five of the Tour de Suisse in a photo-finish sprint ahead of João Almeida after a brutal day in the mountains between La Punt and Santa Maria in Calanca. It is the man from Kelso's second professional win (after he took a stage of the Tour Down Under in 2024) and the strong performance sets him in good stead before La Grande Boucle, starting on July 5, where he will be a key general classification (GC) rider for his team Picnic PostNL. Not only did he beat Almeida, Tadej Pogacar's key UAE Team Emirates XRG lieutenant, on the queen stage of the race, he also finished ahead of seasoned Tour de France riders such as Ben O'Connor (Jayco AlUla) and Julian Alaphilippe (Tudor). The victory proved the young man's credentials as a climber as he moved up the GC to fourth place, 1min 21sec behind the race leader Kévin Vauquelin (Arkéa-B&B Hotels).
Times
a day ago
- Sport
- Times
Yes it's trivial — that's why sport is so precious in this dark world
It's fair to say that JJ Spaun played one of the shots of his life on the 17th hole at Oakmont Country Club — a drive on to the green — to give himself a chance of winning the US Open, before following up with a 64-foot birdie putt on the last that led to a gasp of astonishment in the stands and the millions watching on TV, transfixed by the curious activity of people hitting rubber balls into small cups with sticks of iron (or, these days, some combination of steel, titanium, graphite and tungsten). A little earlier, Tadej Pogacar, perhaps the most astonishing specimen of cardiovascular range yet seen in road cycling, won the Critérium du Dauphiné, the appetiser for that epic test of endurance known as the Tour de France, not sprinting to the line but instead sending a message to his rival Jonas Vingegaard. As my colleague Sean Russell put it in a wonderful report on Sunday: 'He had no need for second place. The Dauphiné had already been won by 59 seconds, and he had barely broken a sweat'. And on the subject of magnificent sport during this first month of a glorious summer, forgive me for mentioning Carlos Alcaraz's defeat of Jannik Sinner in a contest so epic Tolstoy could have written a novel about it. For more than five hours we watched and gasped as these two young men tested each other's limits — tactical and psychological — in a match of kaleidoscopic shifts in momentum and magisterial shot-making (if you get a chance, watch the highlights on YouTube: I guarantee, it'll bring a smile to your face). And look at what's still to come in a summer pregnant with promise: Wimbledon, where Sinner and Alcaraz are set to resume their rivalry (and let's not forget the increasingly impressive Jack Draper) and the inspirational Coco Gauff will gun for two grand-slam titles in a row after her stunning victory over Aryna Sabalenka in Paris; the British Grand Prix at Silverstone; the Tour de France, which will wind its way through cobbled streets and open spaces, including the fearsome climb at Mont Ventoux; the Open at Royal Portrush, where locals will be hoping that Rory McIlroy finds his most superlative form; and, of course, the Test series between England and India (I look forward to the elegant writing of Athers and Steve James almost as much as the action itself). Why am I telling you all this? Well, because the world is dark and ominous. I doubt I'm alone in watching missile strikes in Ukraine and the Middle East with growing alarm. It is understandable to feel a sense of trepidation. But isn't it at times like this that sport (not unlike other cultural pursuits) is more precious than ever, an opportunity not just for escapism but a safety valve to help gain a sense of perspective? Sport is not (I suggest) a distraction, or frivolous, or a way to avoid thinking about momentous issues. Rather it is a means of switching off, letting go, losing oneself in these invented games and heroic battles, the better to think clearly about more serious matters. Winston Churchill went on recuperative swimming holidays at the height of the Second World War. During crises, Harold MacMillan turned to his beloved Trollope (I love the story of an aide who said that at the height of the Profumo affair, the prime minister 'took the news with a grave face, then retired upstairs. The next morning, he appeared, as immaculate as always, and said: 'Well, I've finished Phineas Finn''). Psychologists have often argued that political leaders benefit from a 'hinterland' but isn't such a place of value to us all? Pope John Paul II is reputed to have said: 'Of all the unimportant things, football is the most important', a phrase that has always resonated with me. Does it not hint at the deep truth that the serious and the seemingly trivial do not exist in opposing categories, but in a deep if unspoken symbiosis? This is why I always found it curious that some people are sniffy about sport. It is inconsequential, they say. It's absurd to get so caught up in people kicking a football around, they mock. Well, if you must, see sport in such terms. But I'd retort that sport is wonderful precisely because it is 'trivial'. Indeed, is it not a boon to civilisation that millions thrill to these invented games — just as the Ancient Greeks travelled hundreds of miles to the sanctuary of Olympia to witness the sporting heroes of antiquity, such as the famed wrestler Milo of Croton (who commanded the Crotonian army while wearing his Olympic wreaths and a lion skin). As the historian Lucian put it: 'Oh, I can't describe the scene in mere words. You really should experience first-hand the incredible pleasure of standing in that cheering crowd, admiring the athletes' courage, their amazing physical conditioning, their unbeatable determination and unstoppable passion for victory.' Royal Ascot (to return to the present day) is already under way, with Field Of Gold flying to victory in the St James's Palace Stakes. The British & Irish Lions commence their tour down under on June 28. England's women will kick off their bid to win the Euros against France on July 5. I also can't help mentioning the US Open tennis, which starts in the last week of August and has always been a personal favourite, the hard courts of Flushing Meadows asking particular (and often penetrating) questions of the world's top players. 'The crowd's voice, multiplied and magnified, becomes a living thing. You don't just watch sport; you enter it.' I love these words of my former colleague Simon Barnes because they express the allure of sport when you suspend disbelief and fully 'enter' this magical kingdom. So let's soak it up and drink it in. For here's a prediction that I am almost certain will pan out: despite the gloom and foreboding, this is going to be the most glorious summer of sport.
New York Times
3 days ago
- Sport
- New York Times
Meet Paul Seixas, French cycling's schoolboy with Grand Tour-winning potential
'At first, the goal was just to test my level against the best,' says Paul Seixas, fewer than 48 hours after the Criterium du Dauphine. 'And it was way beyond expectations. To be honest, I was dreaming on my bike, and…' He puffs out his cheeks. 'Just hanging loose.' Seixas speaks like a teenager, but he does not ride like one. At just 18 years old, he finished in the Dauphine's top 10, against arguably the race's strongest field ever assembled. He still lives at home — he is still at school. Advertisement The Lyon-born rider has always been earmarked as one of the top prospects in France — but by the end of last week, Seixas demonstrated why he is considered by many as the greatest young talent in the entire peloton, with Grand Tour-winning potential. He finished tenth as a teenager in last Wednesday's time-trial, just 25 seconds behind Tadej Pogacar, while he has never finished below 15th in a climbing stage — with six top 10s to his name already. 'I'd never ridden elevation like this in my life,' he explains. 'So with my first time coming to race with some of the biggest names in the world, you always have some fears. Maybe you don't know what will happen to you? But to be up there with some of the best, it's insane.' SUPERSTAR IN THE MAKING 🤩 Yesterday, Paul Seixas became the youngest EVER rider to finish in the top 10 at a World Tour level Individual Time Trial. 👦🇫🇷 — Cycling on TNT Sports (@cyclingontnt) June 12, 2025 Sitting sixth in the general classification (GC) entering the final stage, Seixas was desperate to hold onto his top 10, despite the relaxed expectations going in. That was thrown into question by a crash at the base of the final climb, up the 9.7km Col du Mont-Cenis. 'I just turned into a robot at that moment,' he says. 'An Uno-X rider attacked, everybody moved to the right, and I just wanted to stay in my place. But some riders tried to hang and they just took my wheel with them. It was not intentional, so I was not angry, just bad luck, but I just wanted to get back on my bike and lose as little time as possible. 'I didn't even think about changing bikes because it would have taken too long. So I was thinking: 'I know there is no downhill at the top, so I'll just push on it until the finish line.'' Seixas made it, retaining enough of a time buffer to keep eighth on GC. Given the combination of the fall and the fatigue in his legs — this was his longest ever stage race — it was arguably his most impressive performance of the week. Pictures from the summit show him utterly spent, barely able to raise his head from the crash barriers he slumped against. Advertisement 'Every day I was acting as if it was the last day,' he says. 'I just told myself that I had to hang in there, that I could not stop, could not abandon, could not crack. It was in this spirit that I suffered so much. 'Before this race, I had never felt the need to sit down after a race. I had never pushed my body this much. But here I felt I was empty.' At the finish line, with journalists asking him what came next, he gave them a simple answer — sleep. In the event, he was still wired from the caffeine he had taken to get himself through the stage. That night, rest was not forthcoming. Another factor was his teammates — with the entirety of Decathlon-AG2R, one of France's most historic squads, riding for a teenager. 'It just made me want to suffer even more,' he says. 'I wanted to reward them by doing something good in the final stages.' These opportunities, at such a young age, also justify the difficult decision that Seixas had to make last year. Before signing a WorldTour contract, he faced overtures from the likes of UAE Team Emirates, Lidl-Trek, and Soudal-Quickstep, some of the top teams in the peloton. 'I think it was very simple in the end,' he explains. 'It goes way back in my career — I did three years with the junior team here, and it was after that they gave me their proposition. I was so motivated because I trusted them already, they were giving me such good advice and I felt better every year. I'm still certain it was the right decision.' Decathlon-AG2R are carefully managing the youngster — they will not throw him into his debut Tour de France next month, knowing the attention that would come with being a high-potential French talent, as well as the entirely new challenge of a three-week race, more than double the length of anything Seixas has ridden before. Advertisement 'I'm going to be patient,' he says. 'Hopefully, later in the season I will do some more big races, WorldTour races, but for the moment I will do some lower-level races. Obviously there were some good performances at the Dauphine. But I haven't had a win this season — so now I'm going to chase one, and I'm ready for it, I think.' This is still a rider learning his craft, as both a rider and a professional. He credits teammates with massively helping him off the bike, while at the Dauphine, one key area in which he felt that he improved was positioning. 'Everyone is very close in terms of level,' Seixas says. 'So that's different, because you can't just be the strongest guy, you have to be near the front. And then, during the last 50 to 60 kilometres, it's just full gas. Even on the wheel it shocked me, because you are full gas even when you are drafting, you're pushing so much.' Seixas is not from a huge cycling family. His first experiences of racing came from watching the Tour de France with his grandfather. The 2013 Tour de France, Chris Froome's first win, is his earliest cycling memory, from when he was six years old. 'And then I saw Romain Bardet and Thibaut Pinot, they were the first French guys I knew — it was a good era for them, and I think they made me have the passion,' he says. The Dauphine was Bardet's final ever road-race. The pair have developed a relationship; arguably the closest Frenchman to winning the Tour de France in the last two decades passing the torch to the nation's latest hope. The Dauphine had added significance to Seixas as his home race — growing up around Lyon on the fringes of the region, these were well-known roads. 'My grandparents live in the Alps,' he says. 'And my grandfather didn't have the chance to compete as a cyclist when he was younger, he lacked the opportunity. It was a shame, but it remained a dream for him. For him to see me doing this type of race is incredible. 'He came to the bus with me after the final stage. I was so happy to see him like this. One sentence stayed with me — he said that after the race, he felt five years younger.'
Kuwait Times
4 days ago
- Sport
- Kuwait Times
Pogacar wins first Dauphine ahead of Tour de France
UAE Team Emirates XRG's Slovenian rider Tadej Pogacar wearing the overall leader's yellow jersey celebrates winning the overall race on the podium of the 8th and final stage of the 77th edition of the Criterium du Dauphine cycling race, 133,3 km between Val-d'Arc and Val-Cenis - Plateau du Mont Cenis, on June 15, 2025. –AFP PARIS: Reigning Tour de France champion Tadej Pogacar wrapped up the Criterium du Dauphine on Sunday with a podium finish in the eighth and final stage, which was won by France's Lenny Martinez. A winner of three stages in total, the Slovenian dominated the 77th edition of the Dauphine to top the overall classification by 59sec ahead of Dane Jonas Vingegaard — three weeks before the start of the Tour de France. 'It's been a really amazing week,' Pogacar said. 'Once again today, the team did a great job. We managed to defend the (yellow) jersey and we can go home happy and prepare for the Tour.' German Florian Lipowitz completed the podium, 2min 38sec behind Pogacar, while Belgium's Remco Evenepoel came fourth at 4min 21sec. Sunday's final stage was a 133.3km mountainous trek from Val-d'Arc to Val-Cenis, with an uphill finish at the Plateau du Mont-Cenis. The 21-year-old Martinez caught Spaniard Enric Mas with 8km to go to give France its first victory in this Dauphine, finishing 34sec ahead of Vingegaard and Pogacar. Vingegaard tried to catch Martinez but was unable to shake off Pogacar. The Dane and the Slovenian then stopped attacking and rolled in together. Pogacar now has 99 victories to his name — a record for an active rider at just 26 years of age. 'There's a lot of positives from this week and we turned all the negatives into positives, so it's all good,' said Pogacar, who bounced back from a poor time-trial performance in stage four to lay down the gauntlet to his principal Tour rivals. 'There's not much to do ahead of the Tour. I rest a bit, maybe some extra work for the time-trial, and then I'm ready,' the three-time Tour winner added. The 2025 Tour de France runs from July 5-27, with Pogacar the firm favourite following his first Dauphine crown. – AFP
