DUBAI // Mark Cavendish relinquished the leader’s blue jersey on Friday, but he remains in the fight to win the Dubai Tour today after a strong performance amid the jagged mountains of Hatta.
Going into the final stage of the four-day 660-kilometre tour, the Etixx Quick-Step rider is second in the overall standings. He trails Team Giant-Alpecin’s John Degenkolb by four seconds after the German won Friday’s third stage and collected a 10-second bonus.
Cavendish won Wednesday’s first stage and finished narrowly behind Elia Viviani on Thursday to arrive at the tour’s most challenging stage in the lead.
Although the 29-year-old former world champion had played down his chances ahead of yesterday’s 205km route that finished with a steep 150-metre climb, he remained at the front of the peloton until late in the race, before slipping back to finish 10 seconds behind the leader.
“It was a great ride by my team,” Cavendish said. “They have been incredible. We have been at the front for three days and everyone was finding it hard with the crosswinds. We’d like to get at least another stage through the overall.”
Cavendish revealed his Etixx team rode the stage before the tour began and decided that, with a win unlikely, the most important thing was to remain in contention going into the final day.
Saturday’s 123km stage is flatter and more likely to suit Cavendish, who has won the Tour de France’s final Champs-Elysees stage a record four times in a row and is regarded as one of cycling’s best sprinters.
“We knew there would be distance on the climb, but the team stayed with me, we rode a good tempo and we knew we could get back,” he said.
“We recced this stage a couple of days ago, so knew it and it was just about positioning for the final stage. There was no point going for the win, so I tried to save my energy.”
gmeenaghan@thenational.ae
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BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE
Starring: Winona Ryder, Michael Keaton, Jenny Ortega
Director: Tim Burton
Rating: 3/5
The specs: 2018 Jeep Compass
Price, base: Dh100,000 (estimate)
Engine: 2.4L four-cylinder
Transmission: Nine-speed automatic
Power: 184bhp at 6,400rpm
Torque: 237Nm at 3,900rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 9.4L / 100km
The specS: 2018 Toyota Camry
Price: base / as tested: Dh91,000 / Dh114,000
Engine: 3.5-litre V6
Gearbox: Eight-speed automatic
Power: 298hp @ 6,600rpm
Torque: 356Nm @ 4,700rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 7.0L / 100km
FORSPOKEN
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Starfield
Disclaimer
Director: Alfonso Cuaron
Stars: Cate Blanchett, Kevin Kline, Lesley Manville
Rating: 4/5
If you go
Kanguva
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Know your cyber adversaries
Cryptojacking: Compromises a device or network to mine cryptocurrencies without an organisation's knowledge.
Distributed denial-of-service: Floods systems, servers or networks with information, effectively blocking them.
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Trojans: Create a backdoor into systems, which becomes a point of entry for an attack.
Viruses: Infect applications in a system and replicate themselves as they go, just like their biological counterparts.
Worms: Send copies of themselves to other users or contacts. They don't attack the system, but they overload it.
Zero-day exploit: Exploits a vulnerability in software before a fix is found.
COMPANY PROFILE
SRI LANKA SQUAD
Upul Tharanga (captain), Dinesh Chandimal, Niroshan Dickwella
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Nuwan Pradeep, Suranga Lakmal, Dushmantha Chameera
Vishwa Fernando, Akila Dananjaya, Jeffrey Vandersay
COMPANY PROFILE
The specs: 2018 Ford F-150
Price, base / as tested: Dh173,250 / Dh178,500
Engine: 5.0-litre V8
Power: 395hp @ 5,000rpm
Torque: 555Nm @ 2,750rpm
Transmission: 10-speed automatic
Fuel consumption, combined: 12.4L / 100km
The specs
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Nayanthara: Beyond The Fairy Tale
Starring: Nayanthara, Vignesh Shivan, Radhika Sarathkumar, Nagarjuna Akkineni
Director: Amith Krishnan
Rating: 3.5/5
War on waste
While you're here
European arms
Known EU weapons transfers to Ukraine since the war began: Germany 1,000 anti-tank weapons and 500 Stinger surface-to-air missiles. Luxembourg 100 NLAW anti-tank weapons, jeeps and 15 military tents as well as air transport capacity. Belgium 2,000 machine guns, 3,800 tons of fuel. Netherlands 200 Stinger missiles. Poland 100 mortars, 8 drones, Javelin anti-tank weapons, Grot assault rifles, munitions. Slovakia 12,000 pieces of artillery ammunition, 10 million litres of fuel, 2.4 million litres of aviation fuel and 2 Bozena de-mining systems. Estonia Javelin anti-tank weapons. Latvia Stinger surface to air missiles. Czech Republic machine guns, assault rifles, other light weapons and ammunition worth $8.57 million.
The specs
The specs: 2018 Nissan 370Z Nismo
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Price, base / as tested: Dh182,178
Engine: 3.7-litre V6
Power: 350hp @ 7,400rpm
Torque: 374Nm @ 5,200rpm
Transmission: Seven-speed automatic
Fuel consumption, combined: 10.5L / 100km
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COMPANY%20PROFILE
From Zero
Artist: Linkin Park
Label: Warner Records
Number of tracks: 11
Rating: 4/5
Citadel: Honey Bunny first episode
Directors: Raj & DK
Stars: Varun Dhawan, Samantha Ruth Prabhu, Kashvi Majmundar, Kay Kay Menon
Rating: 4/5
TOURNAMENT INFO
Women’s World Twenty20 Qualifier
Jul 3- 14, in the Netherlands
The top two teams will qualify to play at the World T20 in the West Indies in November
UAE squad
Humaira Tasneem (captain), Chamani Seneviratne, Subha Srinivasan, Neha Sharma, Kavisha Kumari, Judit Cleetus, Chaya Mughal, Roopa Nagraj, Heena Hotchandani, Namita D’Souza, Ishani Senevirathne, Esha Oza, Nisha Ali, Udeni Kuruppuarachchi
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SPECS
Engine: Two-litre four-cylinder turbo
Power: 235hp
Torque: 350Nm
Transmission: Nine-speed automatic
Price: From Dh167,500 ($45,000)
On sale: Now
COMPANY PROFILE
WHAT IS A BLACK HOLE?
1. Black holes are objects whose gravity is so strong not even light can escape their pull
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