Sostres, Spain // Spaniard Joaquim Rodriguez claimed the 15th stage of Spain’s Vuelta to move within one second of overall leader Fabio Aru on Sunday.
Rodriguez, 36, was strongest on the 12.7km category one climb to the finish of the 175.8km ride from Comillas to Sostres to win from Poland’s Rafal Majka and fellow-Spaniard Daniel Moreno.
Aru, who is bidding to go one better than his runners-up spot in this year’s Giro d’Italia, was fifth on the day, 15 seconds behind, to hold onto his lead by the slenderest of margins.
Majka’s second place was also enough to move him up to third overall, 1min 24sec behind.
It was a tough day for Dutchman Tom Dumoulin, though, as he was dropped on the final climb and falls to fourth overall, one second behind Majka.
“It is a big confidence boost because we have been looking for the stage win and to be involved in the general classification as well is great,” Rodriguez told Television Espanola.
“We are in a perfect position, just one second off Aru. Whoever is the strongest will win this Vuelta so being ahead or behind by a second I don’t think makes a big difference. The most important thing is that I am feeling very good,” added Rodriguez, who has twice finished third in his home Tour in 2010 and 2012.
A nine-man breakaway had led the stage for most of the day, but the peloton never allowed them a lead of more than four minutes to ensure there would be no repeat of Saturday’s breakaway victory for Alessandro De Marchi.
Nairo Quintana was the first of the general classification favourites to attempt an attack, but the 2014 Giro d’Italia champion was kept in check by Aru’s Astana team.
Rodriguez made his break for the line with a kilometre to go and neither Quintana or Aru could respond to allow the Katusha rider to add a first Vuelta stage victory for two years to his two wins at the Tour de France in July.
Quintana remains three minutes back in ninth overall, 35 seconds behind his Movistar teammate Alejandro Valverde.
“Rodriguez had a great stage, but there are still stages left to achieve things in this Vuelta,” said Aru.
Dumoulin, who is one of the big favourites for Wednesday’s 38.7km time trial in Burgos, recovered well from being dropped by the peloton to limit the damage as he finished 51 seconds back in 12th.
“I tried to go at my rhythm and not get involved with the real climbers. I am doing better on the mountains, but not like them,” said Dumoulin.
“I have to prepare for the time trial with the same calm that I have up until now. If it goes well then it will be great for me and the team, but it is clear everyone wants to win this Vuelta and there can be only one winner.”
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Name: Steppi
Founders: Joe Franklin and Milos Savic
Launched: February 2020
Size: 10,000 users by the end of July and a goal of 200,000 users by the end of the year
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Based: Jumeirah Lakes Towers, Dubai
Financing stage: Two seed rounds – the first sourced from angel investors and the founders' personal savings
Second round raised Dh720,000 from silent investors in June this year
Stage result
1. Pascal Ackermann (GER) Bora-Hansgrohe, in 3:29.09
2. Caleb Ewan (AUS) Lotto-Soudal
3. Rudy Barbier (FRA) Israel Start-Up Nation
4. Dylan Groenewegen (NED) Jumbo-Visma
5. Luka Mezgec (SLO) Mitchelton-Scott
6. Alberto Dainese (ITA) Sunweb
7. Jakub Mareczko (ITA) CCC
8. Max Walscheid (GER) NTT
9. José Rojas (ESP) Movistar
10. Andrea Vendrame (ITA) Ag2r La Mondiale, all at same time
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6
Developer: Treyarch, Raven Software
Publisher: Activision
Console: PlayStation 4 & 5, Windows, Xbox One & Series X/S
Rating: 3.5/5
What went into the film
25 visual effects (VFX) studios
2,150 VFX shots in a film with 2,500 shots
1,000 VFX artists
3,000 technicians
10 Concept artists, 25 3D designers
New sound technology, named 4D SRL
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Uefa Champions League, last-16, second leg (first-leg scores in brackets):
PSG (2) v Manchester United (0)
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APPLE IPAD MINI (A17 PRO)
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Chip: Apple A17 Pro, 6-core CPU, 5-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine
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FIXTURES
Thu Mar 15 – West Indies v Afghanistan, UAE v Scotland
Fri Mar 16 – Ireland v Zimbabwe
Sun Mar 18 – Ireland v Scotland
Mon Mar 19 – West Indies v Zimbabwe
Tue Mar 20 – UAE v Afghanistan
Wed Mar 21 – West Indies v Scotland
Thu Mar 22 – UAE v Zimbabwe
Fri Mar 23 – Ireland v Afghanistan
The top two teams qualify for the World Cup
Classification matches
The top-placed side out of Papua New Guinea, Hong Kong or Nepal will be granted one-day international status. UAE and Scotland have already won ODI status, having qualified for the Super Six.
Thu Mar 15 – Netherlands v Hong Kong, PNG v Nepal
Sat Mar 17 – 7th-8th place playoff, 9th-10th place play-off
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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
Moon Music
Artist: Coldplay
Label: Parlophone/Atlantic
Number of tracks: 10
Rating: 3/5
How the bonus system works
The two riders are among several riders in the UAE to receive the top payment of £10,000 under the Thank You Fund of £16 million (Dh80m), which was announced in conjunction with Deliveroo's £8 billion (Dh40bn) stock market listing earlier this year.
The £10,000 (Dh50,000) payment is made to those riders who have completed the highest number of orders in each market.
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All riders who have worked with Deliveroo for at least one year and completed 2,000 orders will receive £200 (Dh1,000), the company said when it announced the scheme.
Australia World Cup squad
Aaron Finch (capt), Usman Khawaja, David Warner, Steve Smith, Shaun Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis, Alex Carey, Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Jhye Richardson, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Jason Behrendorff, Nathan Lyon, Adam Zampa
TRAP
Starring: Josh Hartnett, Saleka Shyamalan, Ariel Donaghue
Director: M Night Shyamalan
Rating: 3/5
MATCH INFO
League Cup, last 16
Manchester City v Southampton, Tuesday, 11.45pm (UAE)
In numbers: China in Dubai
The number of Chinese people living in Dubai: An estimated 200,000
Number of Chinese people in International City: Almost 50,000
Daily visitors to Dragon Mart in 2018/19: 120,000
Daily visitors to Dragon Mart in 2010: 20,000
Percentage increase in visitors in eight years: 500 per cent
TUESDAY'S ORDER OF PLAY
Centre Court
Starting at 2pm:
Elina Svitolina (UKR) [3] v Jennifer Brady (USA)
Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (RUS) v Belinda Bencic (SUI [4]
Not before 7pm:
Sofia Kenin (USA) [5] v Elena Rybakina (KAZ)
Maria Sakkari (GRE) v Aryna Sabalenka (BLR) [7]
Court One
Starting at midday:
Karolina Muchova (CZE) v Katerina Siniakova (CZE)
Kristina Mladenovic (FRA) v Aliaksandra Sasnovich (BLR)
Veronika Kudermetova (RUS) v Dayana Yastermska (UKR)
Petra Martic (CRO) [8] v Su-Wei Hsieh (TPE)
Sorana Cirstea (ROU) v Anett Kontaveit (EST)
Tips to keep your car cool
- Place a sun reflector in your windshield when not driving
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- Add tint to windows
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