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Dumoulin joins Jumbo-Visma

Dutch cyclist Tom Dumoulin has announced that he will be riding for Jumbo-Visma next season, having spent the previous eight seasons with Sunweb.

Dumoulin was world time trail champion in 2017 and he also won the Giro d’Italia that year. In 2018 he was on the podium of both the Giro and the Tour de France but he has had an injury plagued 2019, having been forced to abandon the Giro and then miss the Tour and the Vuelta.

At Jumbo-Visma he will become part of a superteam being built to rival Team Ineos and Movistar in the grand tours and will ride alongside the likes of Primoz Roglic, Steven Kruijswijk, Laurens De Plus and George Bennett.

Weekend Racing Round-up

It was the last weekend of racing before the Vuelta a Espana starts and there were a number of minor races taking place around the world.

In the far north, the Kazakh rider Alexey Lutsenko of Astana won the Arctic Race of Norway by just one second from Warren Barguil.

In France, Benoît Cosnefroy (AG2R la Mondiale) won the Polynormande ahead of Valentin Ferron (Total Direct-Énergie), having been in an eight rider breakaway.

In Belgium, Laurens De Plus (Jumbo-Visma) won the BinckBank Tour with the final stage being taken by his Belgian compatriot Oliver Naesen (AG2R La Mondiale), who also finished second overall.

Colombian rider Ivan Sosa (Ineos) won the final stage and the GC overall in the Tour of Burgos in Spain and finally, the Belgian Ben Hermans of the Israel Cycling Academy won the Tour of Utah in the United States, with the final stage going to American Joe Dombrowski (EF Education First).

Tesco Honey Granola Bar

TESCO Honey Granola Bar
TESCO Honey Granola Bar
  • Size: 30g
  • Pack Size: 6
  • Pack Price: £0.89 (19/08/2019)
  • Verdict: one out of five (1/5)

This bar is nothing to write home about. It’s pretty bland – there’s only the merest hint of honey flavour – and it’s a bit too crumbly to eat without making a mess. Not much good at a desk or out on a run. It’s also very dry, so you’d better have a drink handy as it will leave you feeling thirsty. On the plus side, it is fairly filling for a 30g bar, so you won’t need to eat many of them to keep you going until the next meal, and it’s dirt cheap at less than £1 for a pack of six. I guess at that price you don’t expect anything special, but I’d rather pay slightly more for something a bit tastier and with a nicer texture.

Nutrition

Typical values per 100g

Energy2048kJ/490kcal
Fat25.1g
Saturates12.1g
Carbohydrate55.6g
Sugars18.7g
Fibre5.6g
Protein7.6g
Salt0.7g

Ingredients

Oats (42%), Palm Oil, Sugar, Wholemeal Wheat Flour, Desiccated Coconut, Honey (4.5%), Raising Agents (Sodium Bicarbonate, Ammonium Bicarbonate), Salt, Flavouring, Whey Derivatives (Milk), Emulsifier (Soya Lecithins).

TESCO 6 Honey Granola Bars Box
TESCO 6 Honey Granola Bars Box

Second Ashes Test Ends in Draw

England and Australia drew the second Ashes test at Lords after a tense final day to leave Australia 1-0 up in the series after two matches.

Starting the day 104 runs ahead with 6 wickets in hand, England’s chances of snatching a win were raised by all-rounder Ben Stokes, who scored a splendid 115 not out, ably supported by Jos Buttler and Jonny Bairstow, who made 31 and 30 (n.o.) respectively. Buttler’s was the only England wicket to fall this morning as they declared on 258-5 to set Australia 267 to win, or 48 overs to survive for the draw.

Australia captain Steve Smith didn’t take to the field, having been hit badly on the head and arm by fast balls from Archer the previous day, but his colleagues dug in well after the early losses of Warner and Khawaja. A big partnership between Labuschagne and Head was the mainstay of their innings as the tourists held on to finish on 154-6 with Leach and Archer having taken three wickets apiece for England.

The third test begins on Thursday at Headingley.

Rugby player banned for ‘testicle attack’

A rugby league player for Bradford Bulls has been banned for eight games for what was described as a “Grade F attack to the testicles”. The hooker George Flanagan was also fined £250 for his action towards Toronto full-back Hakim Miloudi.

MUACOL thoroughly condemns this sort of behaviour and hopes that it never transfers into the noble code of association football.

Second Ashes Test Finely Balanced

England go into the fifth and final day of the second Ashes test of 2019 at Lords on a score of 96-4 in their second innings with a lead of 104 over Australia. Ben Stokes (16) and Jos Buttler (10) are at the crease and will need to stick around and build on the total if England are to stand a chance of winning the match tomorrow, with only Jonny Bairstow, Chris Woakes, Jofra Archer, Stuart Broad and Jack Leach yet to bat.

A lead of anything less than 200 and failing to last through the morning session on Sunday would give Australia ample time to pick off the runs to go two up in the series, having already won the first test at Edgbaston last week. Earlier in the day England finally managed to dislodge Australian captain Steve Smith for the first time in the series as he fell for 92 (lbw to Woakes) whilst top-scoring in the Australian innings of 250 all out in reply to England’s first innings score of 258.

Athletic Club 1-0 Barcelona

Athletic Club kicked off their La Liga campaign in sensational fashion by beating the reigning champions Barcelona 1-0 at San Mamés in the season curtain raiser on Friday night.

Starting XI:
Unai Simón – Capa, Núñez, Yeray, Yuri Berchiche – Dani García, Unai López, De Marcos, Raúl García – Muniain, Williams.
Subs: Sancet (De Marcos 65′), Beñat (Unai López 80′), Aduriz (Williams 87′)

Barcelona were missing their injured superstar Lionel Messi, but they were able to call upon new signing Antoine Griezmann in his place and they dominated possession of the ball in typical fashion. However, Athletic did manage to carve out a few chances, notably a long range effort from Williams in the first half that troubled Ter Stegen in the Barcelona goal.

Barça’s Uruguayan striker Luis Suarez came closest to breaking the deadlock in the first half when he picked up an errant backpass to find himself through on goal but Unai Simón closed him down quickly and his shot hit the post. Unai Simón made another fine save to tip a long-range effort over the bar before the interval, by which time Suarez had gone off injured, making Athletic’s task just a little bit easier.

The match looked like it was heading towards a draw when Iñaki Williams was replaced by Aritz Aduriz in the 87th minute and it would have been a very creditable result for Athletic too, against such strong opposition, but the veteran substitute striker was to have the last word. Only a minute after entering the fray he met a Capa cross from the right with an acrobatic aerial scissor kick to send the ball flying past Ter Stegen and into the net to snatch a dramatic victory.

Olympique Lyonnais 6-0 Angers

Lyon turned in a vintage performance at the Groupama Stadium to crush hapless Angers 6-0 and consolidate their good start to the season under new manager Sylvinho. The home fans got their first look at the new signings and witnessed some exciting attacking football capped by some stunning goals. Back to back clean sheets suggest that Lyon have already solved some of last season’s defensive frailties and this performance bodes well for the season ahead.

It was an unchanged starting line-up from last weekend’s 3-0 win at Monaco with home debuts for new signings Youssouf Koné at left-back, Joachim Andersen at centre-back and Thiago Mendes on the right of the midfield three. Jeff Reine-Adélaïde, who was signed from Angers for €25 million during the week was unavailable due to the conditions of his transfer deal.

Starting XI
Lopes – Koné, Denayer, Andersen, Dubois, – Aouar, Tousart, Thiago Mendes, – Depay, Dembélé, Traore.
Subs: Terrier (Dembélé 66′), Jean Lucas (Thiago Mendes 69′), Tete (Dubois 70′)

Lyon opened the scoring in the eleventh minute when Houssem Aouar was fed by Thiago Mendes and surged forwards to the edge of the box from where he unleashed a powerful shot past Butelle in the Angers goal. The visitors were unruffled by the early setback and gave as good as they got in the ensuing twenty minutes, a period characterised by robust challenges from both sides.

The next goal was going to shape the rest of the game and it came from Dembélé in the 36th minute after two Angers defenders failed to control a loose ball into the area. Memphis Depay increased the advantage shortly before half time, having been played through by the impressive Aouar. As with the second goal, the shot was very close to the Angers ‘keeper and Butelle with have been disappointed not to keep it out.

Lyon carried on where they had left off at the start of the second half with the Aouar-Depay combination again proving decisive. This time the assist was a peach of a lob which Depay collected alone in front of the keeper and easily slotted home. Moussa Dembélé got his second of the game in the 65th minute and new signing Jean Lucas came off the bench for his home debut to wrap up the scoring with his first touch in the 72nd minute after some slick trickery from Depay on the byline.

There were good performances throughout the Lyon team and nine goals scored with none conceded in their first two matches leaves them sitting pretty at the top of the table. Next up, it’s Monpellier away.

Manchester United 4-0 Chelsea

Manchester United confirmed their good pre-season form with an eye-catching 4-0 demolition of Frank Lampard’s Chelsea in their opening match of the 2019-20 Premier League campaign. However, the emphatic scoreline doesn’t tell the full story as Chelsea put up a strong fight and had more possession, more corners and more shots. Indeed, they hit the woodwork twice and were unlucky to trail to Marcus Rashford’s penalty at the interval.

Kurt Zouma had fouled Rashford inside the box and the striker drove the resultant penalty firmly into the roof of the net in the 18th minute. United were then content to soak up the pressure and play on the counter attack, with new signing Harry Maguire impressive at centre-back. The other new arrival, Aaron Wan-Bissaka started at right-back, meaning that United had around £125 million worth of new talent to call on in defence.

United’s counter attacking was clinical, with Martial and Rashford adding two goals in two minutes mid way through the second half to put the game beyond Chelsea and substitute Daniel James capped a dream debut by scoring the fourth just minutes after replacing Andreas Pereira.

United seemed to catch Chelsea at the right time as the Europa League winners left Kanté, Giroud and new signing Pulisic out of the starting line up, perhaps with one eye on their midweek European Super Cup match against Liverpool, and were also missing Willian, Rüdiger, Hudson-Odoi and Lofthus-Cheek through injury. The Blues are likely to be a much tougher proposition later in the season, so we can’t read too much into this result, but United have certainly started this campaign much better than they finished the last.

Starting XI:
David de Gea – Shaw, Maguire, Lindelöf, Wan-Bissaka – Rashford, McTominay, Pereira, Pogba, Lingard – Martial

Subs: James (Pereira 74′), Greenwood (Rashford 86′), Mata (Lingard 86′)

AS Monaco 0-3 Olympique Lyonnais

Lyon began the new Ligue 1 season in the best possible way, with a thumping 3-0 away win at erstwhile heavyweights Monaco. This clash was an early test of how these two giants have recovered from disappointing campaigns last time around and Lyon demonstrated that new manager Sylvinho has got them back on the right track, whereas Monaco are still in the sort of disarray that saw them narrowly avoid relegation.

Lyon’s shaky pre-season form was quickly forgotten as they raced into the lead within a few minutes of the kick-off when Moussa Dembélé beat Benjamin Lecomte in the Monaco goal. Memphis Depay doubled the lead half an hour later, with an assist from new signing Thiago Mendes. By then, Lyon’s task had been made significantly easier by the dismissal of Monaco’s Spanish midfielder Cesc Fabregas.

The ten men were unable to muster a fight-back in the second period and Lucas Toussart put the result beyond doubt with ten minutes to go, again set up by Thiago Mendes. A potentially tricky encounter was negotiated with ease by Lyon and they go straight to the top of the Ligue 1 table. In truth, it was probably a good time to face Monaco, as they have several first teamers injured or suspended, whereas Lyon were practically at full strength for this tie. There will be tougher tests to come in the near future, but it’s a very satisfying result nonetheless.

Four summer signings made their competitive debuts for OL during the match, with Dane Joachim Andersen slotting into central defence alongside Jason Denayer, and Youssouf Koné starting at left-back. His fellow signing from Lille, Thiago Mendes was in midfield and Jean Lucas joined him there for the last few minutes.

Starting XI:
Lopes – Koné, Denayer, Andersen, Dubois – Aouar, Tousart, Thiago Mendes – Depay, Dembélé, Traoré

Subs: Jean Lucas (Aouar 77′), Cornet (Traoré 83′), Tete (Koné 86′)