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International Capsules: Contador wins 3rd Tour, as Armstrong steps aside
PARIS (AP) — Alberto Contador stood atop the podium at the Tour de France on Sunday for the third time in four years, struggling to rein in his emotions as Spain's national anthem echoed across the wide boulevard of the Champs-Elysees.
Off to one side, Lance Armstrong applauded and then, without much fanfare, headed toward the exit.
"I need a cold beer," he said when asked his thoughts at the finish line.
Rarely has the emergence of a sport's newest superstar dovetailed so neatly with the departure of the last one.
Contador held off a next-to-last day challenge from Andy Schleck of Luxembourg, his runner-up for a second consecutive year, draining much of the drama from the 20th and final stage. Denis Menchov of Russia was third overall.
Armstrong completed his last Tour in 23rd place, 39:20 behind Contador, his former teammate and rival. His crash-filled journey was a far cry from the third-place finish he posted in 2009 on his return from a four-year retirement.
Yet the sport the 38-year-old American leaves behind hardly wants for budding stars eager to lead the way.
Schleck, for one, vows he'll win the yellow jersey one day. That promise could produce the next great Tour rivalry, but this year, it wasn't always sporting.
The high-drama point in the race — and the low-point in their avowed friendship — came in Stage 15.
Wearing the yellow jersey, Schleck mounted an attack against Contador on a Pyrenean climb. Suddenly, Schleck's chain came undone, and he pedaled in vain. Contador sped ahead, and by the stage finish, had taken yellow and 39 seconds on Schleck — his margin of overall victory.
Many cycling aficionados cried foul, saying Contador had broken the sport's unwritten etiquette about not taking advantage of unlucky breaks a rider can't control — especially when he was wearing yellow.
Some fans jeered Contador, and he later apologized on YouTube. Schleck, who was fist-swatting angry at first, eventually patched things up with his rival and urged the crowd to as well.
By the time they wheeled into Paris for the finale, the coronation trumped any lingering controversy.
"I suffered to get this result," said Contador, before hoisting the victor's cup, the Arc de Triomphe looming spectacularly in the background. "I don't have words to express what I feel."
Schleck pointed to Contador's yellow shirt.
"This year, it didn't work. I have a rendezvous in one year with that color there," he said. "I am better than last year because then it (the deficit) was 4 minutes."
Mark Cavendish of Britain claimed his fifth stage victory this Tour and 15th in his career in a sprint at the end of the 20th and final stage — largely a ceremonial 63.7-mile course from Longjumeau to Paris.
The 27-year-old Contador exchanged hugs with his Astana teammates, who began chanting "Ole, Ole, Ole, Ole" on the Champs-Elysees, where thousands of fans lined the route to cheer the cyclists. He now joins Greg LeMond, Louison Bobet and Philippe Thys as a three-time Tour champion.
His win added to Spain's recent sports success — coming off its World Cup victory, and Rafael Nadal's win at Wimbledon.
Armstrong is the most successful Tour rider ever, with his wins from 1999 to 2005. His last ride in this, his favorite race, began in controversy and ended under a cloud of suspicion, following accusations by former teammate Floyd Landis that Armstrong used performance-enhancing drugs to win.
Landis was stripped of his 2006 Tour title after a positive test and later admitted doping. His allegations against Armstrong and others helped launch a federal investigation. Armstrong has never tested positive and as he has in the past, again denied any involvement in doping.
On Sunday, his RadioShack team was temporarily barred from starting for wearing an improper jersey — and the race started about 15 minutes late as a result.
TV images showed Armstrong and his teammates putting on normal jerseys with their correct race numbers after they tried to wear a black jersey with "28" on the back. The figure was chosen to honor 28 million people fighting cancer, one of the themes Armstrong's Livestrong Foundation focuses on.
But International Cycling Union officials said Armstrong and his teammates had to change their jerseys and wear the official race numbers, according to UCI rules.
Contador sipped champagne during the leisurely ride and held up three fingers to signal his third Tour win. His Astana team was prepared to quash any attempt for Schleck to break away Sunday — and they had a playful ride.
Near the end, Contador, who is known as "El Pistolero" for his trademark finger-firing gesture, took a blue plastic squirt gun and sprayed photographers.
But very little about this tour could be called fun.
In the first two stages after the July 3 prologue in Rotterdam, rain-splattered and oil-slickened roads brought down at least half the pack. In Stage 3, the drama took a treacherous turn over bone-jarring cobblestone patches — including one that punctured Armstrong's tire and dealt an early blow to his title hopes in a stage in which his experience was expected to give him an advantage.
Not even halfway through the race, it was a two-man show between Schleck and Contador, when they finished ahead of other pre-race favorites as the Tour left the Alps.
They raced wheel-to-wheel in a lung-busting duel up the Col du Tourmalet in Stage 17, when Schleck couldn't shake Contador — whose explosive climbing prowess would not be denied.
The Spaniard ultimately yielded the stage win, but never strayed far from Schleck's rear wheel during the grueling climb, setting the stage for one last fight.
It came Saturday, when the 25-year-old Schleck rode what he called the time trial of his life. But it wasn't enough to close the gap on Contador, who excels in the discipline. They were unrivaled in the climbs, but the time trial proved Schleck will need to do better racing against the clock if he hopes to beat Contador one day.
With his victory, Contador became only the second rider in the past 20 years of Tour history to win the race without a single stage victory — a sign he's increasingly following Armstrong's methodical approach to Tour success. They were uneasy teammates on Astana last year.
Armstrong's hopes of victory collapsed in Stage 8, when he was caught up in three crashes, including one at about 40 mph on a roundabout when his body skidded on the ground and turned over.
Struggling on subsequent climbs, Armstrong said his luck — which kept him nearly crash-free during his reign of Tour domination — had run out, and solemnly said at the time: "My Tour is finished."
Alessandro Petacchi of Italy captured the green jersey given to the race's top sprinter. He was second in the 20th stage, just ahead of Julian Dean of New Zealand.
Anthony Charteau of France won the polka-dot jersey as the best climber; Schleck takes home the white jersey for being the best young rider for a third straight year, and the RadioShack squad won the team competition.
Armstrong bids Tour adieu, not the way he wanted
PARIS (AP) — Lance Armstrong didn't want to go out this way.
In his final Tour de France, the seven-time champion popped a tire, crashed and struggled up the mountains. Worse, he appears to be the target of a U.S. federal investigation into doping and fraud allegations while a rider on the US Postal team.
One Tour too many? Maybe.
Still, he maintained he had no regrets despite the ignominious ending of No. 13 — nearly 40 minutes behind the leader, former teammate and rival Alberto Contador.
"I wouldn't say that it's ruined," he said during an interview with a few reporters Sunday. "In 10 years, when I look back on the 2010 Tour, it won't be the memory that I have.
"Obviously, I won't have a yellow jersey to remember — I'll remember the team, digging deep to win the team GC (general classification)," he said. "It's significant for us and the sponsor.
"I'll remember having my son here for a week at the Tour," he said, referring to 10-year-old Luke. "I'll remember the bad luck, certainly — the crashes. But that won't be the thing that I'll take away."
During the race, there were numerous published reports of a federal investigation led by Jeff Novitzky, a special agent with the Food and Drug Administration, into claims about Armstrong and doping by former teammate Floyd Landis.
Several former riders who race with Armstrong have reportedly been subpoenaed. Armstrong faced questions about those reports at the Tour. He said he had not been subpoenaed or contacted by Novitzky himself.
Landis, who was stripped of his 2006 Tour title for doping, had long denied doping until April, when he announced that he, in fact, did — and alleged Armstrong did, too. The claim came as Armstrong was riding in the Tour of California.
Armstrong, who denies the allegations, faulted Landis for trying to clear his conscience and trying "to incriminate a half-dozen other people. ... To me, that doesn't add up."
"That's just somebody who's trying to ruin the lives of others," Armstrong said on a high-speed French train from Bordeaux to the Paris area for the Tour's 20th and final stage.
He insisted his life isn't going to change.
The Livestrong wristbands of his charitable foundation will continue to sell; he will do charity rides; he will still be a father of four — soon to be five — children; he will still hang out with stars like singer Bono and actor Matthew McConaughey.
Ask any rider or team manager at the Tour, and it's clear Armstrong's mark on the sport is indelible — the use of earpiece radios for riders, training regimens, diet and race strategy, among other things. His success helped convert what was mostly a summertime passion in Europe into a 21st Century business fanning interest from Canada to China.
But his long-masterful control of his image — cancer survivor, Tour champion, public personality and pitchman — may finally be escaping his grasp.
Last year, returning from a four-year retirement from the Tour, he finished an impressive third, got within one second of the yellow jersey he knows so well, and warmed the hearts of French fans who once despised him for his methodical, "American" drive to victory above all.
This year, he was but a mere 23rd, and his best single showing was arguably in the prologue in Rotterdam, where he placed fourth.
He gradually downscaled his ambitions. At first he wanted to win. Then, he wanted a stage win, which he narrowly missed in an eight-man sprint finish to the 16th stage, the toughest day in the Pyrenees.
When that opportunity vanished, he focused on his RadioShack squad — which did give him a sliver of glory and a podium appearance by winning the team classification.
In Stage 3, he blew a tire on cobblestones, and lost time. In Stage 8, he got involved in three crashes that his 38-year-old body just couldn't recover from in time to scale tough Alpine climbs.
"With the first crash, my body never felt the same after that, and the second was the nail in the coffin," he said. "So you could look at it like that, and yeah, it was one (Tour) too many."
Yet he said pulling out wasn't an option.
"I couldn't quit," Armstrong said. "I could have said a dozen things were wrong, but that's not the commitment that I made. The result wasn't ideal, but it would have been a serious mistake to quit on the team, to quit on the sponsor, to quit on my fans.
"OK, it's not what they wanted, it's not what any of us wanted. But it would have been far worse to DNF" — Did Not Finish, he said.
He's happy, for the time being, to be out of the limelight.
"Right now, I'm going to the Bahamas, I'm gonna put my feet up and forget about riding the bike for a little bit. Drink some cold beer. Build some sand castles with my kids," he said after the race ended.
"I got my competitive fix for the next 40 years, it will take until about 80 (years old) and then I don't think I will wanna come back," he said.
His 2.5 million-plus followers on Twitter will have to wait.
"I'm laying off the Twitter for a while. I gotta go away."
-- Jamey Keaten
Commentary: Armstrong could never leave well enough alone
Lance Armstrong could never leave well enough alone.
For all his other outsized traits, that restlessness still defines him. It propelled Armstrong to revolutionize a sport, become its greatest champion and a hero to cancer survivors worldwide. That same impulse is what drove him to get back on his bike barely two years ago and risk it all.
Back then, Armstrong was retired with his legacy largely intact, still every bit as powerful and public a figure as he desired. He dated starlets, swapped text messages with Bono, testified before lawmakers and linked arms with Bill Clinton to announce an ambitious global initiative to combat the disease that nearly killed him almost 15 years earlier.
Yet this Sunday saw Armstrong shuffled off to the background at the Tour de France, standing quietly off to one side as the yellow jersey he wore seven years in a row was stretched across the slim shoulders of 27-year-old Spaniard Alberto Contador.
Seeing his one-time teammate and rival atop the podium for the second straight year, and third in the last four, certainly hurt. Armstrong finished third to Contador in 2009, in his first comeback ride after a layoff that stretched back to 2005.
This time around, he was plagued by cobblestones and flat tires, caught up in crashes and no longer a factor even before the midway point of the race. He eventually faded to 23rd, almost 40 minutes behind the winner.
The consolation, noble as it seemed to the rest of us looking on, is that Armstrong, scraped up and sore as any 38-year-old could ever be, didn't quit.
But being an also-ran was never good enough for Armstrong before. And the sting of this defeat could linger even longer because of a federal investigation launched earlier this year following accusations of doping by Floyd Landis, another former teammate, that one or more of Armstrong's seven tour titles were achieved by doping.
"In 10 years, when I look back on the 2010 Tour, it won't be the memory that I have," Armstrong said earlier Sunday, before the final stage run-in to Paris.
"Obviously, I won't have a yellow jersey to remember — I'll remember the team, digging deep to win the team (competition) .... I'll remember having my son here for a week at the Tour. I'll remember the bad luck, certainly, the crashes.
"But that," Armstrong added, referring to Landis' allegations against him and others, "won't be the thing that I'll take away."
Armstrong has never shied away from attention. He's perhaps the most frequently tested athlete on the planet and has never come back dirty. But he learned early on that wouldn't be enough to keep suspicion at bay.
Late in the first of his seven straight wins, in 1999, Armstrong was found to be using a corticosteroid — in a cream for saddle sores, he maintained — and for which he produced a prescription. But Armstrong, as he has every time since, couldn't resist the chance to fire back.
"They say stress causes cancer. So if you want to avoid cancer, don't come to the Tour de France and wear the yellow jersey," he said at the time. "It's too much stress."
He never let his guard down after that.
Whether as plaintiff or defendant, Armstrong has won every court case he fought since, and pushed back hard against attempts to nail him by French anti-doping authorities, several damaging books and even questions about some of his associates — notably Italian doctor Michele Ferrari, whom he quietly dropped soon after.
As a result of his refusal to back down, Armstrong won the benefit of the doubt and nearly every case he's contested in the court of public opinion, too. It didn't hurt, of course, that Armstrong proved to be as tireless and relentless a crusader for cancer research as he was a rider.
Yet the ongoing investigation, trumpeted across the headlines even as he struggled to stay in the race, have put both that record and his legacy in jeopardy. Even Armstrong acknowledged as much.
"Legacies won't ever be written the same now, like they were before — in this era of 24-7 news and media, and blogs and speculation and the constant need for attention from the media," he said.
But Armstrong was certain about this much: "If Frank Sinatra lived today, he'd have a much more difficult time being Frank Sinatra."
Whether that applies to being Lance Armstrong only time will tell.
But he was already a world-class triathlete at 15, even before cancer and arguably the toughest training regimen ever transformed him into something as close to a machine as humanly possible.
During his run, Armstrong also boasted the most money, best team, support staff and state-of-the-art equipment. He might jet down to train on the moonscapes of Tenerife, up to the tip of L'Alpe d'Huez, or rent a wind tunnel to find out if the material on the back of his jersey bunched up too much — ridges mean more resistance to wind. Those innovations changed cycling forever.
"It was a very traditional sport, very old school, almost relaxed," he recalled.
"We just wiped it all clean and said, 'We're going to analyze every little thing — if it's the composition of a team, if it's a diet, if it's reconn-ing the courses, if it's the tactics, if it's radios, whatever it is — we sort of led the push there."
Yet when Armstrong walked away the first time, in 2005, he was determined not to let even those accomplishments — and the controversies that blew up in the wake of all that winning — to define him. He's just as determined now.
"There are several camps here: there's one of 'he didn't do anything'; there's one where 'he did everything'; and there's another camp that, 'he may have done something, but everybody else did something, so I'm OK with it.' ...
"That's totally fine, I have no problem with that. I gave up fighting that a long time ago," Armstrong said.
"It's not going to stop me from running my foundation. It won't stop me from being a good father to my kids. It won't stop me from doing whatever I want to do with my life."
-- Jim Litke
Waiting for an (expensive) Armstrong autograph
PARIS (AP) — The bus of Lance Armstrong's team was waiting just off the course near the Champs-Elysees. Colin Hackett and Erin Meloche had been standing next to it in their RadioShack jerseys for almost two hours.
The brother and sister from Edmonton, Alberta, were waiting for a glimpse of Lance Armstrong after his last Tour de France stage and — they hoped — an autograph. And for this chance they've happily paid out a small fortune.
For $1,160 paid to a tour company, Hackett, 29, and Meloche, 27, didn't get a tour — they received a drink, some pretzels, and an orange wristband that gave them access to the guest areas on the final day of the Tour de France.
They did it for the love of Lance.
"It's just about what he's done for cancer research, cancer survivors, and bringing cycling to North America," said Hackett, a physical education teacher who came to Paris to present a paper at a teaching congress.
The pair watched six of the eight laps that the riders rode around the Champs-Elysees, but then they slipped away and missed Mark Cavendish's victory to make sure they had a good place at the entrance to the bus.
After the race, the riders returned to the bus to change their jerseys, but then they set off again to be awarded the team trophy. Now they're ensconced in the bus again, with security guards on the doors and a black curtain pulled across to prevent anyone looking in.
It was nearly 7 p.m. and Hackett and Meloche had a bus an hour later to travel to the airport for a flight to Rome. They already decided to stick it out, even if it means having to take a taxi.
The crowd, jostling for a little bit of space in the summer evening heat, was discussing whether Armstrong will come out again or whether the bus will leave. Some women consider starting a chant of "We want Lance."
"I just wish someone had suggested wearing sensible shoes," Meloche complained.
Some of the other riders come out. Levi Leipheimer signed his name across Hackett's jersey. But there was no sign of Armstrong.
Then a stir in the crowd. The bikes are brought out, and the riders start to emerge and ride off on them. The security guards push the crowd back. "A lot of other people want to see him, too," one says.
Armstrong emerged, gets on his bike, and rides past Hackett. "Lance, real quick ..." Hackett manages, before Armstrong is gone again, on a lap of the Champs-Elysees circuit with his team.
"I've been, like, this close to him four or five times. If I can just get the pen in his hand," Hackett says to someone else in the crowd.
They continued waiting, joking with the security guards. It's 7:20 p.m. "I'll miss my flight and I don't care," Hackett says.
He knows that Armstrong is facing a federal investigation into possible fraud and doping violations, but he doesn't believe the allegations.
"To be honest, I think it's just mudslinging," he says.
There are signs that the riders were coming back. Hackett was in a prime position just by the front door of the bus. But then the French police moved in and told the crowd to move back. The primarily English-speaking crowd resist the orders given in French for a while, but then the police get insistent.
"You have to leave," one says, shepherding the die-hards away. Hackett and Meloche climb a barrier and stand on the other side of it.
Now it's 7:30 p.m.
Suddenly the bus moves, pulling forward by a few yards. The crowd needs to move, too. Hackett dives around the side of the barrier and finds himself another place in the middle of the melee. Some of the riders return.
There was a cheer from the left. Armstrong is in the crowd. Hackett gets right in there.
Then Armstrong's bike is put into the bottom compartment, he disappears through the door and the RadioShack bus is moving off.
Hackett and Meloche are moving, too, running up the road just in time to get the bus to the airport.
"I got three or four autographs but not his," Hackett says. "But I got to see him, and got to touch him once."And was it worth $1,160?
"For sure."
-- Naomi Koppel
RadioShack's improper jersey stalls start to stage
PARIS (AP) — Lance Armstrong and his RadioShack team have been forced to change unofficial jerseys honoring cancer patients before starting the final stage of the Tour de France.
The start of Sunday's stage was held up while Armstrong and his teammates took off the black jerseys with the number "28" on the back. The figure was selected to honor the 28 million people fighting cancer, the focus of the Texan's Livestrong Foundation.
TV images showed the RadioShack riders on the side of the road taking off the black jerseys and putting their regular red ones on and pinning their numbers to the backs.
The rest of the pack pedaled slowly as race officials delayed the start.
The 63.6-mile course from Longjumeau to Paris is expected to be largely ceremonial — with Alberto Contador set to win his third Tour.
Tour de France Glance
PARIS (AP) — A brief look at Sunday's 20th stage of the Tour de France:
Stage: The 20th stage was a largely ceremonial 63.7-mile ride from Longjumeau to the Champs-Elysees in Paris
Winner: Mark Cavendish of Britain who easily gained his fifth stage win of this year's race — the 15th in his career — in a sprint ahead of Alessandro Petacchi of Italy and Julian Dean of New Zealand.
Yellow Jersey: Alberto Contador of Spain won his third Tour by keeping the yellow jersey. He finished ahead of Andy Schleck of Luxembourg for the second straight year. Schleck trailed the Spaniard by 39 seconds while Denis Menchov of Russia finished third overall, 2:01 back.
Quote of the Day: "I need a cold beer" — Lance Armstrong, when asked about what was his first thought after crossing the finish line. Armstrong, who was competing in his last Tour, finished 23rd, 39:20 back.
Other Cycling News
Landis rides through the Cascade Cycling Classic
BEND, Ore. (AP) — Disgraced cyclist Floyd Landis is racing this week in central Oregon, far removed from the Tour de France and the victory that has come to symbolize a tainted era for the sport.
Landis rode Saturday night in the fourth stage of the Cascade Cycling Classic through downtown Bend, where he was met by a smattering of cheers and boos by some of the 10,000 spectators. The appearance came a day after ABC's Nightline ran a report in which Landis again accused seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong of using performance-enhancing drugs.
Armstrong, who is currently riding in his final Tour, has repeatedly denied doping.
Landis was stripped of his 2006 Tour de France title for doping and admitted this spring used drugs to gain a competitive edge. The admission spurred a federal investigation of possible fraud and doping charges against Armstrong and his associates.
Landis, 34, is riding for the second straight year in the Cascade Classic, which organizers say is the longest consecutive-run elite cycling race in the country. Saturday night's event was the popular Twilight Criterium, a 75-minute loop through the high desert town's center.
Landis would not comment after finishing in the back.
"Nah, not right now," he said. "Maybe tomorrow if I feel better."
The race wraps up on Sunday.
After the criterium, fan Bill Stacy shook Landis' hand and wished him luck. Stacy said he was initially angry when Landis finally came out and admitted he cheated.
"But as it unfolded I still have to admire him a little bit for just trying to do the right thing — and suffering a little bit for it, for sure. I just wanted to give him a little token of support, I guess."
Others were not so charitable.
"I guess I don't understand his need to bring everyone else down with him," Tim Francis said while watching the cyclists whirl past.
Earlier this week Landis spoke briefly to the Bend Bulletin newspaper about both coming clean and airing the new allegations against Armstrong that touched off the federal probe.
"It was about doing what was right," Landis told the newspaper. "It was about doing what allowed me to live my life OK with me. So whatever the reaction is, I hope it's good. I hope people want to know the truth, but that wasn't really my main concern."
While he still maintains he did not use synthetic testosterone, even though he tested for high levels of testosterone following his Tour victory, Landis admits to using other performance enhancing drugs and blood doping.
Armstrong, meanwhile, wraps up his final Tour de France on Sunday. A cancer survivor, he has said he wants to devote more time to his family and to his Livestrong foundation to benefit cancer research.
Alberto Contador has already all but sewn up a victory in cycling's premier race.
Landis served as a support rider for Armstrong from 2002-04, before leaving for Swiss team Phonak and winning the 2006 Tour. He was later stripped of his title for doping and fought the charges until May, when he finally admitted to using drugs throughout his career and implicated Armstrong in organized doping.
-- Anne M. Peterson
Volleyball
Pro beach volleyball tour looking for new investor
The AVP is negotiating with new investors for an infusion of money necessary that would help the U.S. pro beach volleyball tour avoid a midseason shutdown.
In a statements e-mailed to reporters on Sunday, CEO Jason Hodel and majority investor Nick Lewin confirmed that the AVP is in need of new funding. But in a telephone interview with The Associated Press, Hodell said that negotiations with a new investor have been ongoing "for quite some time" and a "definitive" announcement is expected this week.
"That would be a disaster if we were just getting started today," Hodell said. "We're not worried or panicked. It's all progressing quite fine. But it's not closed, so it's not 100 percent the case that we can say we're going to have our financing."
The Los Angeles Times first reported that players were briefed on the AVP's finances in a conference call on Wednesday, leaving many at this weekend's Long Beach (Calif.) Open concerned about their future. The next event on the schedule would be in San Francisco on Aug. 14-15.
"We have to close our financing before San Francisco or one or more events will be canceled," Hodell told the AP. "That said, all of the management team is confident it will be done. ... The tour itself has a lot of momentum."
Hodell said the tour's goal was to be transparent with the players.
Instead of putting rumors to rest, though, the discussion apparently left the players wondering.
"The players are understandably concerned because they're not quite sure where things stand with the financing and the season," Hodell said.
Thanks in part to the American success in the Athens and Beijing Olympics — the women in bikinis don't hurt, either — the AVP has grown in the last decade from separate men's and women's tours with six events to a unified circuit with 10 outdoor stops this year and more in an indoor winter tour. The tour has expanded TV coverage, but sponsorships have been harder to come by.
Although Hodell would not comment on the identity of the potential new owners or the amount of their investment, he said they were already involved in other sports, both major- and minor-league teams. By pairing with them, he said, the AVP would benefit from their connections in and their familiarity with the sports world.
Nick Lewin, the managing partner at RJSM Partners, the tour's majority investor, was also optimistic that this year's tour would continue uninterrupted.
"RJSM has invested heavily in beach volleyball, and we're in the middle of negotiating additional financing with the AVP to make it an even stronger property," Lewin said. "We see a bright future for the tour and we will continue to support its future growth opportunities. We're looking forward to the rest of a great season."
-- Jimmy Golen
May-Treanor and Branagh win in Long Beach
LONG BEACH, Calif. (AP) — Misty May-Treanor and Nicole Branagh won the AVP Tour event in Long Beach for their second tour win this season.
Phil Dalhausser and Todd Rogers won for the fifth tournament in a row, beating No. 2 seed Sean Scott and John Hyden in the men's final 17-21, 21-17, 15-6.
May-Treanor, a two-time Olympic gold medalist, won here in 2007 and 2008 with partner Kerri Walsh. She and Branagh beat Annett Davis and Jenny Johnson Jordan, 21-16, 21-19. May-Treanor also won an NCAA title with Long Beach State in 1998.
"It feels good. It puts a smile on our faces," May-Treanor said. "I went to school here and have a house in the city. I love this city, the people, the fans. I love playing in front of a home crowd."
Swimming
Maine college student wins Peaks to Portland Swim
PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — A 20-year-old college student has won the 29th annual Cyrus Hagge Peaks to Portland Swim for the second straight year.
Nick Daly, of Cape Elizabeth, won Saturday's 2.4-mile swim from Peaks Island to the Portland mainland in 45 minutes, 22 seconds. Daly is a student at Middlebury College in Vermont.
Kristen Desrosiers, of Gorham, was the top female finisher in 48:03, the seventh best time overall among 192 swimmers.
