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MONASTERIO DE TENTUDIA, Spain: Rigoberto Uran won stage 17 of the Vuelta a Espana on Wednesday after a swashbuckling high-altitude struggle to a mountaintop monastery in Extremadura as defending champion Primoz Roglic withdrew injured.

Aiming for a fourth straight Vuelta Roglic was a non-starter due to injuries from a fall Tuesday when he was trying to gain time on race leader Remco Evenepoel, who Wednesday lost five seconds to his closest rival Movistar’s Enric Mas.

The Belgian leads by 2min 01sec with 19-year-old Juan Ayuso of UAE in third.

“We have to do something,” Mas, a two-time Vuelta runner-up said, already thinking about the four peaks on Thursday’s stage 18.

“I don’t know what we’re going to do tomorrow, but if we have good legs and a good feeling, and the atmosphere in the team is super good, we have to do something,” he added.

Colombia’s Uran was completing a collection of stage wins in all three of cycling’s Grand Tours.

The 35-year-old, a previous runner-up on both the Tour de France and the Giro d’Italia was among a long range escape who began an internecine struggle up the final slope with the lead changing hands several times.

“It’s beautiful to win in the Vuelta,” said Uran. “I’ve been looking for this win for years.”

“We always have to believe and fight, even if sometimes the results seems far off,” he said.

The 22-year-old Belgian Evenepoel enjoyed a lead of almost three minutes at one point earlier in the race, but suffered the loss of crucial teammate Julian Alaphilippe to injury.

Stage 18 and 20 feature multiple mountains when Mas will hope to attack Evenepoel.

In the fight for the green sprint points jersey Denmark’s Mads Pedersen now has 349 points to Fred Wright’s 149.

Australian Jay Vine of Alpecin retains the polka dot jersey after his two mountain stage wins and has a good chance of keeping it all the way to Madrid.

LAUSANNE: The International Olympic Committee on Friday said it had “full confidence” that France would ensure security at the 2024 Olympics in Paris.

Fears have grown over safety at the event in the French capital as the opening ceremony on July 26, 2024 draws closer.

But IOC President Thomas Bach said: “After a number of consultations, visits, follow-ups... I can say we have full confidence in the French security authorities.”

France’s reputation for policing sporting events took a battering following chaos at the Champions League final between Liverpool and Real Madrid in Paris on May 28, which critics blamed on heavy-handed policing.

An inquiry by the French Senate in July concluded that the problems were caused by a “string of dysfunctions.”

But Bach told reporters, the French authorities “have drawn the right conclusions from the incidents on the occasion of the Champions League final and they enjoy our full confidence.”

Another subject of concern is the ambitious vision of an Olympics opening ceremony that will not take place as is common in the athletics stadium, but as a flotilla down the River Seine.

Pierre-Olivier Beckers, the head of the IOC’s 2024 Games coordination commission, last week said he had been “reassured” about security at the opening ceremony after meeting Paris police chief Laurent Nunez.

In early August, he had told AFP discussions were ongoing about the number of people who would be allowed on the river banks to watch the parade.

Organizers had originally said 600,000 people might attend, but faced calls to reduce that number.

World Athletics head Sebastian Coe earlier on Friday told AFP he was also pushing for certain events to be moved out of the Stade de France, north of Paris, into street locations to increase exposure.

Coe, who headed up the organizing committee for the London Olympics in 2012, said he thought it was worth it despite the “security costs.”

PIORNAL, SPAIN: Mads Pedersen surged away from his sprint rivals on Friday to take the 19th stage, his third victory in the last seven Vuelta a Espana stages, while race leader Remco Evenepoel finished comfortably in the pack.

Pedersen, a Dane who rides for Trek, powered away from Fred Wright and Belgian Gianni Vermeersch, to take the 138.3km stage that began and ended in Talavera de la Reina in central Spain.

With two stages to race, Belgian Evenepoel of Quick-Step remained two minutes and seven seconds ahead of Spaniard Enric Mas and 5min 14sec clear of third-placed Juan Ayuso.

The stage ended in a sprint after the pack reeled in a powerful breakaway.

“It was very hard to control the peloton, the team did an impressive job,” said Pedersen. “I have to say thank you to the guys because without them I had no chance to win today.”

Evenepoel said he had done a deal with the winner to help ensure the pack finished together.

“This was the perfect race,” said Evenepoel. “I promised Mads to control the breakaway with him, so we did our job.”

On Tuesday, when his closest rival Primoz Roglic suffered a race-ending crash, Evenepoel also had a scare when he punctured.

But the Belgian was given the same time as the main bunch because he was less than 3km from the finish when he stopped.

He said those events were on his mind on Friday and he was just aiming to make it to the last 3km “in case I would get a flat tire or a bike problem. It’s just to stay safe, because tomorrow is the last day and the biggest fear today was to have a crash or to be unlucky. So that’s why we were trying to stay in front.”

“Then, the last 1.3km was a straight line, so then I could slow a bit down and just follow the wheels.”

Saturday’s 20th and penultimate stage is a 181km run from Moralzarzal to Puerto de Navacerrada through the Guadarrama range north of Madrid. It includes five climbs which will give Evenepoel’s rivals one last chance to attack.

“I think tomorrow will be a very crazy day,” said mountains classification leader Richard Carapaz of Ineos.

Sunday’s final stage is a short, flat ride into Madrid.

Meanwhile Roglic, the three-time defending Vuelta champion, on Friday blamed Wright for his crash.

Barely 100m from the line on Tuesday, Roglic, sprinting for victory and bonus points, made contact with Wright, lost control at high speed, smashed onto the tarmac and suffered injuries that forced him to abandon.

“This was not okay,” Roglic said in an interview published on the web site of his Jumbo-Visma team.

“The way this crash happened is unacceptable,” Roglic said.

“The crash was not caused by a bad road or a lack of safety but by a rider’s behavior. I don’t have eyes on my back. Otherwise, I would have run wide. Wright came from behind and rode the handlebars out of my hands before I knew it.”

Roglic said he felt “slightly better” on Friday morning.

He would not say if he thought he would race again this season.

“I can walk a little bit I am happy with that for the moment.”

As marks of respect following the death of Queen Elizabeth II, riders paused at the start line for a minute and the British-based Ineos team wore black armbands.

RIYADH: Saudi champions Al-Hilal defeated Egyptian counterparts Zamalek 4-1 on penalties on Friday to win the Lusail Super Cup in front of almost 80,000 fans in Doha.

Despite the drama of spot kicks, after 90 minutes of action at Lusail Stadium ended in a 1-1 draw, it was a more-than deserved victory for the Riyadh side, who had dominated for much of the game.

Former Manchester United striker Odion Ighalo opened the scoring for the Asian champions but, just after the half-hour, Senegalese forward Ibrahima Ndiaye equalized for Zamalek, who won the Egyptian Premier League title last month.

Reigning Saudi Professional League champions Al-Hilal, who have won their first three games of the new season, were on top from from kick-off and took a deserved lead after 18 minutes with an opening goal that would be worthy of the World Cup final that will take place in the same stadium in December.

A lofted pass from the half-way line by impressive Colombian midfielder Gustavo Cueller found Ighalo just outside the area. The Nigerian striker beat the offside trap, controlled the ball with a deft touch and then delicately lifted the ball over goalkeeper Mohammed Awad, who had come off his line.

Zamalek had struggled to make an impact in the game but, after 33 minutes, they found themselves level. Goalkeeper Abdullah Al-Mayouf blocked a low shot from Seifeddine Jaziri but new signing Ndiaye was well placed to slot home the rebound.

Al-Hilal tried to bounce back and, just before the break, Awad saved with his left thigh from Moussa Marega when the Malian marksman broke through after a rapier-like attack.

At half-time the Asian champions, who had enjoyed two-thirds of the possession and the better chances, were disappointed to find themselves still on level terms and they began the second-half with clear attacking intent. The second period proved to be more of the same, with the Riyadh side taking the game to their Cairo counterparts.

On the hour, Al-Hilal should have restored their lead. Brazilian attacker Michael, who had just been introduced, reached the byline on the right side of the penalty area and pulled the ball back for Salem Al-Dawsari, who shot wide from just outside the six yard box.

Still the Blues pushed forward but just could not find a way past Awad. Indeed, they almost found themselves behind, with nine minutes remaining, when Egypt international Ahmed “Zizo” Sayed took up a good position only to blast his shot over the bar.

And so the game drifted into penalties. Ighalo scored the first and then Zizo beat Al-Mayouf but not the post to give the Saudi Arabians an initial lead.

Al-Dawsari increased Al-Hilal’s advantage but with Zamalek scoring and Awad then saving from Luciano Vietto, they appeared to be level again — until the video assistant referee ruled the goalkeeper had moved off his line.

The Italian scored at the second time of asking to make it 3-1, which meant that when Mahmoud Hamdy’s weak shot was saved by Al-Mayouf, Carillo could, and did, win the cup for Al-Hilal.

JEDDAH: Saudi Arabia is in talks with sports chiefs in Egypt and Greece over an audacious joint bid to host the 2030 football World Cup finals. “The three countries are working flat out” and “the application to organize the tournament is being studied,” Mohammed Fawzi, spokesman for the Egyptian Sports Ministry, said on Friday. Egypt had hosted many world championships in the past three years, Fawzi said, and was well qualified to stage football’s premier tournament. A source at Greece’s Hellenic Football Federation in Athens confirmed that the three countries were holding discussions about a joint bid. If the bid is successful, the tournament would take place in the winter of 2030 to avoid the extreme summer heat, as with this year’s World Cup finals in Qatar in November and December. The bid will face competition from at least two other joint proposals. Argentina, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay launched a bid in early August to host the 2030 World Cup, while Spain and Portugal announced their joint candidacy last year. The joint South American bid aims to stage the 2030 final in the same Centenario stadium in Montevideo that hosted the first final 100 years earlier. World football’s governing body FIFA will select a host for the 2030 tournament in 2024. Hosting major international sporting events, including European club football and boxing world title bouts, is a key part of Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 development strategy.

NEWYORK: Britain’s Joe Salisbury donned a black armband in honor of Queen Elizabeth as he won the US Open men’s doubles title with American partner Rajeev Ram on Friday. Top seeds Salisbury and Ram defeated Wesley Koolhof of the Netherlands and Neal Skupski of Britain 7-6 (7/4), 7-5. It was the pair’s second successive title in New York as they became the first back-to-back champions at the tournament since 1996. Skupski wore a black ribbon on his shirt as the two British players paid tribute to Queen Elizabeth who died Thursday at the age of 96.