Demare wins sprint for third stage victory as Almeida keeps overall lead

Arnaud Demare earned his second straight stage victory and his third in this year’s Giro d’Italia by winning the seventh leg in another mass sprint Friday, and Joao Almeida held onto the overall leader’s pink jersey.

Demare edged Peter Sagan, Michael Matthews and Fabio Felline at the end of the mostly flat 143-kilometer (89-mile) leg from Matera to Brindisi.

Demare, a French rider with the Groupama-FDJ team, also won the fourth and sixth stages, which also ended in mass sprints.

“My team-mates have made the difference even more than the great confidence I have these days,” Demare said. “We had to exchange the positions of the lead out men in the finale. There was some elbow to elbow. With the head wind to finish with, it wasn’t an easy task.

“I opened my sprint at a right time. I felt the presence of Peter Sagan close to me. I’m happy I made it again. It is extraordinary.”

There was little drama on Friday despite heavy crosswinds affecting some parts of the stage. Although there were early splits in the peloton, with several of the overall favorites left behind before getting back in the race. Almeida, a Portuguese rider with the Deceuninck-Quick Step team, remained 43 seconds ahead of Spanish rider Pello Bilbao.

“Today we went very fast, especially in the final,” Almeida said.

“In the last kilometers I stayed in the front of the peloton protected by my teammates. They did a perfect job to protect me from the wind. The Maglia Rosa (pink jersey) makes me stronger every day.”

Saturday’s eighth stage is a 200-kilometer (124-mile) route from Giovinazzo to Vieste. The first half is mainly flat but there are two categorized climbs in the much more undulating second part of the stage.

Saturday’s eighth stage is a largely flat 200km run up the Adriatic coast from Giovinazzo to Vieste.

The Giro was rescheduled from its usual May slot because of the coronavirus pandemic. The race ends on Oct. 25 with an individual time trial in Milan.

Paris-Roubaix classic cancelled : Cycling’s Paris-Roubaix ‘Monument’ classic , which was due to be raced on Oct. 25, has been cancelled amid the COVID-19 crisis, organisers said on Friday. The men’s and women’s races have been cancelled by local authorities following French health minister Olivier Veran’s announcement on Thursday that the Lille metropole was being placed under maximum COVID-19 alert. France’s new daily COVID-19 infections were above the record 18,000 threshold for the second day on Thursday, while the number of people treated in hospital for the disease was up.

Paris-Roubaix, also known as “the Queen of the Classics”, was initially scheduled in April but was postponed because of the COVID-19 crisis.

“At the request of the Prefet du Nord, Prefet des Hauts de France and following Health Minister Olivier Veran’s announcement yesterday, that placed the Lille Metropolitan area on maximum alert, the 118th edition of Paris-Roubaix and the 1st edition of Paris-Roubaix Femmes, originally scheduled to take place on the 25th October, will not be taking place,” organisers ASO said in a statement.

Agencies