分类： sports

GENEVA, Switzerland – Dutch cycling star Lorena Wiebes delivered another masterclass in sprinting on Sunday, claiming her second consecutive victory at the 2024 Women’s Tour de France on the event’s second stage. The win marked Wiebes’ seventh overall Tour de France victory, extending her legacy as one of the race’s most dominant sprinters.

The second stage of this year’s edition unfolded across a flat 147.9-kilometer route, stretching from the Swiss town of Aigle to the finish line in Geneva – the second consecutive stage held entirely on Swiss soil. Wiebes crossed the line in a total time of 3 hours, 42 minutes and 8 seconds, launching her decisive attack with just 250 meters remaining in the stage to outpace the peloton.

This dominant performance came just one day after Wiebes claimed victory in the Tour’s opening stage, delivering back-to-back wins in equally commanding fashion. Speaking after her victory, Wiebes credited her SD Worx-Protime team for the strategic support that made the win possible. “It’s special to win in the yellow jersey, but also because again, my team worked really hard for this,” she said. “The girls were chasing full gas in the final to bring back Riejanne Markus. That makes it even more beautiful to finish it off.”

Markus, who had held a solo breakaway for nearly 40 kilometers across the latter half of the stage, was caught by the chasing peloton just 500 meters short of the finish line, ending her bid for a stage win. Following Wiebes across the finish line, Lidl-Trek’s Elisa Balsamo secured second place, while Marianne Vos of Team Visma-Lease a Bike rounded out the top three.

With two stages complete, Wiebes holds a 14-second overall lead over second-place rider Kim Le Court Pienaar. 2023 Tour champion Demi Vollering sits two seconds further back in third place, keeping her within striking distance of the overall lead as the race moves into its third day.

On Monday, the peloton will face a 156.5-kilometer hilly stage, kicking off in Geneva before crossing the French border to finish in the town of Poligny. This year’s edition, the fifth running of the modern Women’s Tour de France, covers a total distance of 1,175 kilometers over nine days of racing. The Women’s Tour comes just one week after Tadej Pogacar claimed his fifth overall title at the men’s Tour de France.

One of the world’s most punishing endurance challenges has a new record holder: New Zealand ultra-runner Sophie Woods has conquered the 2,000-kilometer Via Alpina route across eight European countries in just 29 days, cutting six full days off the previous fastest mark set earlier this year.

The iconic trail stretches the entire length of the Alps, starting in Italy and winding through Slovenia, Austria, Germany, Liechtenstein, Switzerland and France before reaching the finish line on Monaco’s Mediterranean coast. For context, the total elevation gain along the route equals climbing Mount Everest 12 times over. Only a small handful of runners have ever attempted the route under formal timing, given its extreme technical difficulty and physical demand.

Woods launched her attempt on July 4, but from the start, her journey was beset by unforeseen challenges. This summer, a series of record-breaking heatwaves and extreme weather have swept across southern Europe, sparking widespread wildfires that have forced hundreds of thousands of evacuations across France, Spain and Portugal. On Italy’s hottest weekend, nearly all major cities were placed on the highest red heat alert. These conditions forced Woods and her support crew to detour around active fire zones, adding an extra 5 kilometers and 200 meters of dangerous, unplanned climbing to her already grueling route. On top of wildfires and extreme heat, the team also fought through severe storms, a biting horsefly swarm, and constant physical discomfort.

The 42-year-old runner shared that the first two weeks of the attempt were brutal. “The first week was horrendous – everything was swollen, everything was sore. I was sure I was going to pull 15 million muscles,” she told BBC Sport in a post-run interview. By the third week, however, her body adapted, and she found a steady rhythm. “It was like I was eating mountains for breakfast,” she joked.

To sustain 15 to 18 hours of nonstop running each day, Woods relied on a practical diet of McDonald’s meals, pasta, and energy gels, with constant support from her husband George, friend Zoe, and their dog Nila along the route. In the final push to the finish, she pushed through on just 90 minutes to two and a half hours of sleep per night to secure the sub-30 day completion she had targeted from the start.

The previous record for the fastest Via Alpina crossing was set by British runner Jake Catterall, who finished the route in 35 days in 2024. Reflecting on her achievement after crossing the finish line Saturday night, Woods said she was both overjoyed and completely exhausted. “I am ecstatic but knackered,” she said. “There were a few points where I felt like I don’t know how I’m going to get to the finish of this. I never wanted to stop but the enormity of the task was overwhelming at times.”

Woods added that her grit for long, punishing mountain efforts is what set her apart, even if she is not the fastest sprinter on the ultra circuit. “I might not be the fastest person out there but I know how to do big, long days in the mountains and just keep moving when everything hurts,” she said.

Woods’ record-breaking run caps a standout year for women in ultra-running, coming just months after Rachel Entrekin set a new course record at the grueling Cocodona 250 race back in May. For Woods personally, the challenge came after a difficult multi-year fertility journey that included IVF treatment. She explained that after that experience, she wanted to push her boundaries and build a life that felt fully her own, setting her sights on the Via Alpina record from the moment she signed up for the attempt. “I didn’t want to be running for more than 30 days – 30 days is enough,” she said. “I knew that I was strong and capable. But this has taken it over and beyond that.”

She summed up the core of ultra-endurance running as equal parts preparation and mental toughness: “Ultra-running is about preparation, mental strength and being able to continue to persevere when things go wrong. I think women are really good at adapting and continuing.”

Now that she has secured her place in endurance running history, Woods says she is ready for a much-deserved break. “I intend to spend quite a lot of time on the couch and watch Netflix – and eat some vegetables,” she joked.

In an extraordinary display of human endurance and mental fortitude, British ultra-runner Sophie Woods has etched her name into the history books of long-distance trail running by obliterating the existing record for the iconic Via Alpina ultramarathon by a staggering six days.

Stretching across more than 2,600 kilometers through the heart of the European Alps, the route cuts through eight different countries, presenting runners with some of the most punishing and unpredictable terrain on the planet. Over the course of her journey, Woods faced a relentless barrage of extreme weather challenges that would have stopped most athletes in their tracks. Severe storm systems rolled through mountain passes, bringing lashing rain, high winds, and reduced visibility that turned narrow alpine trails into dangerous slippery tracks. When the skies cleared, she was forced to confront sweltering heat that pushed temperatures as high as 37 degrees Celsius, testing her body’s ability to regulate temperature and maintain hydration over thousands of meters of elevation gain.

Beyond temperature extremes, Woods also had to navigate rapidly changing environmental hazards, dodging widespread flood zones in low-lying valleys and shifting wildfire smoke and burn areas that emerged across parts of the alpine region during her run. The multi-country route exposed her to a wide range of trail conditions and regional climate variations, requiring constant adaptability and quick decision-making to stay on course and safe.

Her achievement has sent shockwaves through the global ultra-running community, where the Via Alpina record is widely regarded as one of the most challenging markers of elite long-distance performance. The six-day margin of improvement over the previous record is far larger than most experts predicted possible, highlighting both Woods’ exceptional preparation and her extraordinary resilience in the face of unforeseen challenges.

The fifth edition of the prestigious Women’s Tour de France kicked off in dramatic fashion on Saturday, with Dutch cycling star Lorena Wiebes of the SD Worx-Protime squad claiming the opening stage win on the roads surrounding Switzerland’s Lausanne.

The opening 137-kilometer route, which started and finished in the heart of Lausanne, treated spectators and competitors alike to stunning Alpine scenery, with the peloton winding past two glacial lakes set against the backdrop of the snow-dusted Swiss Alps. By the final sprint to the line, Wiebes outmatched the field to take the first yellow jersey of this year’s race, with Luxembourg’s Kim Le Court crossing just behind in second place.

Third place went to pre-race favorite Demi Vollering, who has already notched multiple major victories this season, including an overall win at the women’s Giro d’Italia. Vollering’s late attack forced Wiebes to make a tough chase, setting up one of the most dramatic opening stage sprints in recent race history.

In a post-race interview, an elated Wiebes shared her surprise at the result: “I can’t believe it. The entire SD Worx-Protime team worked incredibly hard to put me in this position. When Demi attacked, I immediately knew I had to stick with her. That sprint felt like it went on forever, but I’m so proud we pulled this off.”

Notable finishers in the opening stage include last year’s overall winner, French rider Pauline Ferrand-Prévôt, who crossed the line in eighth place, while Vuelta champion Paula Blasi claimed 12th position overall.

Over the next eight days, riders will compete across a total 1,175-kilometer route that travels from Switzerland into southern France. The race’s most challenging test comes on Friday, when competitors will tackle the iconic climb of Mont Ventoux, before the overall winner is crowned in Nice on the French Riviera on the final Sunday. The opening of the women’s race comes one week after Slovenian cycling great Tadej Pogačar secured his fifth overall title at the men’s Tour de France, wrapping up the men’s competition last weekend.

The rift at the top of global football has deepened dramatically after European football’s governing body Uefa announced it has lost all confidence in Fifa president Gianni Infantino, in the wake of the abrupt scrapping of a controversial private investment plan for the body’s top competitions.

Infantino, who has held the role of Fifa president since February 2016 and is currently seeking a fourth term in office ahead of the Fifa Congress scheduled for next March, confirmed on Saturday that the governing body would no longer move forward with the proposal to sell minority stakes in a new commercial subsidiary that would manage Fifa’s flagship tournaments including the men’s World Cup. The plan, which was first leaked to media earlier the same week, would have created Fifa Forward Enterprise (FFE), allowing external private investors to acquire non-controlling shares in the entity.

Behind the proposal, developed with analysis from investment bank JP Morgan, was the argument that the World Cup – the world’s most widely viewed global sporting event – was currently under-monetized by Fifa. The plan projected that expanded tournaments would deliver an increased payout of up to €24 million (£20.5 million) per member association by the 2035-2039 cycle. Critics quickly pointed out that the proposal made no mention of investment or development for the women’s game, and the lead investor group was set to be led by Thrive Eternal, an American venture capital firm founded by Joshua Kushner, brother of former US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner. The New York Post, which first broke the news of the plan’s withdrawal, reported that the entire ordeal had become a “brand nightmare” for Kushner.

Opposition to the proposal spread rapidly across global football confederations within days. Uefa held a vote on Thursday, announcing it would boycott all future World Cups if the plan moved forward, stating that the World Cup “cannot be treated as an investment product”. Concacaf, the governing body for North, Central American and Caribbean football which hosted the 2024 men’s World Cup this summer, confirmed its members rejected the plan, with anonymous sources adding that the vast majority of regional associations had already lost confidence in Infantino. The Asian Football Confederation also joined the opposition, voicing solidarity with Uefa and Concacaf.

Internal opposition also grew inside Fifa itself. Chief operating officer Kevin Lamour admitted that the governing body’s own administration had been “deceived” about the project. Carlos Cordeiro, Infantino’s senior adviser on global strategy and governance, resigned in protest, calling the proposal “a bad deal for football” that would “mortgage football’s future”.

Shortly after Fifa confirmed the plan’s withdrawal, Uefa released a scathing, lengthy statement that marked one of the most severe public attacks ever launched against a sitting Fifa president. While the body welcomed the scrapping of the plan as “a victory for the whole game”, it went on to withdraw its confidence from Infantino’s entire leadership, noting that the move reflected the views of many other members of the global football family beyond Europe.

Uefa directly called out Infantino for breaking 2016 campaign promises he made when first running for Fifa president, when he pledged that Fifa would operate with full transparency, and that Fifa’s funds belonged to member associations and must only be used for the development of global football. “On both these promises, he has failed to deliver. The shabby, back room, opaque deal he hatched and tried to force through were anything but transparent,” the statement read.

The European body added that it would not tolerate “secret schemes of fast-track timescales cooked up by faceless individuals and of dubious benefit to the game”, calling for all individuals responsible for the proposal to be identified and held accountable. Uefa also announced it would work with member associations and other confederations to implement new safeguards to prevent similar attempted deals from moving forward in the future, and will propose reforms to Fifa’s existing Forward resource distribution programme to unlock idle funds held in Fifa’s bank accounts for grassroots football development. “We don’t need to sell off the family silver to pay for it,” the statement noted. “This is a victory for the whole game. But it must not be the end of the story. The proposal has gone. The task of rebuilding trust in Fifa has only just begun.”

Chief football reporter Simon Stone notes that any hope Infantino held of limiting reputational damage from the failed plan has been entirely destroyed by Uefa’s open attack. While the Asian Football Confederation framed its criticism in more diplomatic terms, Uefa’s rebuke was unvarnished and harsh, using language like “shabby” and “opaque” to condemn the process. As of Monday morning, Fifa and Infantino have not issued any public response to Uefa’s statement. With the 2026 presidential election just months away, Infantino is now facing unprecedented pressure, with no visible public support rising to counter the widespread opposition across the sport’s leading governing bodies.