Archive September 11, 2025

Italy’s Filippo Ganna won a shortened individual time trial on stage 18 of the Vuelta a Espana as Britain’s Tom Pidcock retained his third place in the overall standings.

UAE Team Emirates-XRG’s Joao Almeida, who is second in the general classification, took 10 seconds off the advantage of overall race leader Jonas Vingegaard.

The stage was reduced from 27.2km to 12.2km to ensure “greater protection” for riders because of security concerns resulting from a series of pro-Palestinian protests during the three-week race.

Police numbers were also ramped up, with hundreds of protestors waving flags along the route and whistling riders from Israel-Premier Tech.

And French news agency AFP reported that two protestors were detained for trying to jump over barriers.

Two-time world time trial champion Ganna, 29, lived up to his billing as the favourite, with the Ineos Grenadiers rider edging out Australian Jay Vine by a second in Valladolid.

“Obviously, with the news of the change in the parcours [route] last night it was a bit strange, but I tried to do the best today,” said Ganna, who was 10 seconds quicker than anyone else over the final four kilometres.

“The first part I didn’t find the correct rhythm and in the final I tried to push over without thinking of the numbers. I am really happy for today.”

While Ganna’s fast finish ensured he pipped Vine, all eyes were focused on the battle at the top of the general classification.

Almeida finished strongly to put time into Visma-Lease A Bike’s Vingegaard and the Portuguese rider now sits 40 seconds behind the Dane with two competitive stages of racing remaining.

Q36.5 Pro Cycling’s Pidcock finished 29 seconds behind Ganna but managed to extend his advantage over Australian Jai Hindley in the battle for the final podium spot by three seconds.

1. Filippo Ganna (Ita/Ineos Grenadiers)13mins 00secs

2. Jay Vine (Aus/UAE Team Emirates-XRG) +1secs

3. Joao Almeida (Por/UAE Team Emirates-XRG) +8secs

4. Bruno Armirail (Fra/Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale) +10secs

5. Ivo Oliveira (Por/UAE Team Emirates-XRG) +11secs

6. Stefan Kung (Swi/Groupama-FDJ) +12secs

7. Kelland O’Brien (Aus/Team Jayco-AlUla) +15secs

8. Alec Segaert (Bel/Lotto) +16secs

9. Jonas Vingegaard (Den/Visma-Lease a Bike) +18secs

1. Jonas Vingegaard (Den/Visma-Lease a Bike) 65hrs 7mins 13secs

2. Joao Almeida (Por/UAE Team Emirates-XRG) +40secs

3. Tom Pidcock (GB/Q36.5 Pro Cycling) +2mins 39secs

4. Jai Hindley (Aus/Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe) +3mins 18secs

5. Giulio Pellizzari (Ita/Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe) +4mins 19secs

6. Matthew Riccitello (US/Israel-Premier Tech) +5mins 17secs

7. Felix Gall (Aut/Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale) +5mins 20secs

8. Sepp Kuss (US/Visma-Lease a Bike) +7mins 26secs

9. Torstein Traeen (Nor/Bahrain Victorious +7mins 42secs

Madrid will host the 2027 men’s Champions League final – with Warsaw to stage the women’s final.

Atletico Madrid’s 70,000-capacity Estadio Metropolitano has been awarded the men’s showpiece after Milan’s San Siro was stripped of the honour.

Uefa decided to reopen bidding for the event amid concerns about refurbishment plans at the San Siro – and the match will now take place in the Spanish capital.

Madrid’s Estadio Metropolitano last hosted the Champions League final in 2019, when Liverpool beat Tottenham.

The women’s final will be staged in Poland’s capital, at Warsaw’s Stadion Narodowy.

Uefa took the decisions at a meeting of its executive committee in Tirana in Albania where it also discussed requests from Spain and Italy’s football associations to play domestic league matches abroad but did not come to a decision on the issue.

“The committee acknowledged it as an important and growing issue but expressed the desire to ensure that it has the views of all stakeholders before coming to a final decision,” said a Uefa statement.

“There are many issues to resolve and as the European governing body, Uefa has a responsibility to take all such factors into account.

“As a result, no decision was taken today but Uefa will undertake a round of consultation with all stakeholders in European football – including fans.”

The executive committee did approve an amendment to the 2025-26 Uefa club competitions’ regulations that will permit clubs to temporarily replace one outfield player with a long-term injury or illness in their squads during the league phase until matchday six.

Japan is currently experiencing its hottest summer since records began in 1898.

The extreme heat is going to coincide with the 2025 World Athletics Championships, due to take place in the Japanese capital Tokyo from 13-21 September.

Temperatures are 2.36C above average, and are expected to exceed 30C for the duration of the championships.

The opening day, which will host the 35km men’s and women’s race walk, is forecast to reach 32C.

Events on the first three days of the championships will start 30 minutes earlier than scheduled because of the heat.

The women’s and men’s 35km race walk on 13 September, women’s marathon on 14 September and men’s marathon on 15 September will now start at 07:30 local time (23:30 BST).

World Athletics said it had taken the decision to put “the highest priority” on athlete safety, in light of “expected elevated heat conditions that could pose a health and safety risk”.

To ensure the safety of participants, World Athletics has a heat rule which can be applied when temperatures get too high.

The Wet Bulb Globe Temperature (WBGT) scale is used to determine whether the heat rule should be enforced.

The WBGT measures heat stress in direct sunlight, which involves observing temperature, humidity, wind speed, sun angle, and cloud cover.

For athletics events, a warning is issued when temperatures reach 25C, and severe warnings are issued when temperatures reach 28C.

Competing at temperatures of 30C and above are classed as dangerous.

To reduce the risk of heat illnesses, athletics competitions are often scheduled during cooler mornings or evenings.

Health advice suggests distance races should take place below 18C.

World Athletics president Sebastian Coe said there will be “heat challenges” at the championships in Tokyo.

He added the battle against climate change had fallen on sports leaders after inaction from governments.

“Governments have not stepped up to the plate and sport is going to have to take some unilateral judgments and decisions here,” said Coe.

After a record-breaking summer in Japan this year, the heat continues for the start of the championships this weekend.

For events on Saturday, it will be quite cloudy, but the temperature will still reach 30C.

By Sunday and into next week, those will soar to the mid-30s.

But when you add on the humidity, the heat index or the ‘feels like’ temperature will be more like the mid-40s.

The 2019 edition of the World Athletics Championships took place in Doha, Qatar.

It was held in late September to early October to avoid high temperatures.

But there was still extreme heat during that period, and large air conditioning units had to be brought into the Khalifa International Stadium.

Medical staff were also on hand to monitor conditions, and events were held in the middle of the night to avoid illness caused by the high temperatures – 28 runners from the women’s marathon dropped out because of the heat.

Indoor events had air conditioning too.

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