The cycling world championships in Zurich closed on Sunday with Tadej Pogacar’s title. The conclusion of the Worlds where France shone in para-cycling. For their part, PSG and Union Bordeaux-Bègles won.
:quality(50)/2023/07/04/64a430a2e1f98_theo-rond.png)
Published
Reading time: 5 min
:quality(50)/2024/09/29/design-sans-titre-6-66f9b87e7159c959871869.jpg)
In MMA, the UFC returned to Paris on Saturday evening, for uneven results among the French. In Ligue 1 and the Top 14, the Parisian leaders keep the pace, while on the oval ball side, Bordeaux achieved the feat on the Toulouse pitch. On the cycling side, the ogre Tadej Pogacar won his first world champion title after an exceptional raid.
Cycling: Pogacar finally holds his world title, Kopecky doubles the stakes
We thought he was crazy when, 100 kilometers from the finish, Tadej Pogacar left the peloton to try to catch up with the breakaway. After counting on his Slovenian teammate Jan Tratnik, who was aiming for the race at the front, the three-time winner of the Tour de France left, 77 kilometers from the end of the race, alone or almost, relying only on his legs to carry towards the title. And the number of the winner of the Giro and the Tour de France worked, since at the age of 26, this poker move allowed him to win his first rainbow jersey.
Romain Bardet, who was competing in the last race of his career with the blue jersey, finished 10th, while Julian Alaphilippe had to abandon after a fall in the first hours of the race which left him with a shoulder injury.
Road race (M): Tadej Pogacar world champion for the first time as boss
What a race from Tadej Pogacar! The Slovenian attacked 100 kilometers from the finish to establish himself as boss in Zurich and win the rainbow jersey for the first time in his career. Ben O’Connor gets the silver medal and Mathieu van der Poel completes the podium.
Among the women, on Saturday, the Belgian Lotte Kopecky played against a small group to retain her title in front of the American Chloé Dygert and the Italian Elisa Longo Borghini. First Frenchwoman, Juliette Labous finished outside the top 10 (12th), while Pauline Ferrand-Prévôt retired for her return to road racing.
Road race (F): Lotte Kopecky retains her world title
At the end of a hotly contested race, Lotte Kopecky won in the sprint during these World Road Cycling Championships in Zurich ahead of Chloé Dygert and Elisa Longo Borghini. The Belgian retains her world title acquired last year in Glasgow.
Para-cycling: eight titles for France at the Worlds
One last title to end in style. Joseph Fritsch, titled in the road race in category H4 (hand cycle) on Sunday, brought an eighth gold medal to France at the para-cycling world championships in Zurich. This is the second in these Worlds for Fritsch, who had already won the relay handbike with Florian Jouanny and Johan Quaile opening the Worlds. Loïc Vergnaud won silver in category H5.
The French delegation leaves Switzerland with a total of 25 medals, a few weeks after the particularly successful Paralympic Games in Paris with 21 medals, including seven gold.
MMA: Benoît Saint Denis swept away at home
It must have been a Dantesque evening for him, at Bercy. It turned into a nightmarish evening for Benoît Saint Denis, the leading figure of the UFC Paris evening on Saturday. The French fighter lost to the Brazilian Renato Moicano on a technical knockout, without ever being able to express his qualities.
Quickly knocked to the ground, his face bloodied, “God of War” saw the doctor stop the match after the second round, his vision being too obscured by his injuries. This is his second defeat in a row after the one in March against Dustin Poirier. This long evening was better for other French people: Morgan Charrière, Nassourdine Imavov, Taylor Lapilus, Farès Ziam, William Gomis and Oumar Sy won.
Ligue 1: PSG and Monaco keep pace, not Marseille
PSG is moving forward. A week after their draw against Reims (1-1), Paris-Saint Germain got rid of Rennes (3-1) during the 6th day of Ligue 1. Dominators, the teammates of Bradley Barcola, twice scorer , felt a little panic blow at the end of the match when the 3-2 Rennes goal was refused for a harsh handball. Same outcome for Monaco, which has a third victory in a row against Montpellier (2-1), but had to wait until the 98th minute to see Lamine Camara properly celebrate the 100th anniversary of ASM.
Another “European”, Brest still cannot manage to string together victories despite its first success in the Champions League ten days ago against Sturm Graz. The Bretons lost heavily on the Auxerre pitch (3-0) and are languishing in 13th place, 10 points behind PSG.
The Lyonnais were scared against Toulouse. It all started badly with Yann Gboho opening the score a quarter of an hour into the game. But Rasmus Nicolaisen’s own goal allowed the Lyonnais to get back into the match 15 minutes later. And the liberation came at the very end of the match thanks to Malick Fofana.
The Marseillais missed the mark against a very solid Strasbourg team. Often embarrassed and uninspired, Roberto De Zerbi’s men were unable to do anything against Strasbourg who were much more enterprising than them (1-0). OM let Monaco and Paris escape, leading with a three-point lead. Strasbourg is 8th.
Top 14: UBB’s feat on the Toulouse pitch
Stade Toulouse had not lost on its lawn since February 2022. And it was Union Bordeaux-Bègles which broke this invincibility by winning 16 to 12, after the humiliation suffered in the Top 14 final in June last.
The two teams each scored two tries (Kinghorn and Mauvaka for Stade Toulousain, Bielle-Biarrey and Lucu for the UBB). But the Toulousains were too imprecise and made too many errors against the solid Bordelais, with numerical superiority in the first period. With this success, UBB takes first place in the Top 14.