Groves triumphs in the penultimate stage of the Tour de France

▲ The Australian achieved his first stage victory on the French tour. Photo AFP

From the Editorial Staff

La Jornada Newspaper, Sunday, July 27, 2025, p. 9

Slovenian Tadej Pogacar moved closer to securing his fourth Tour de France title and confirming his status as the world's current best cyclist after safely completing the penultimate stage yesterday and maintaining his significant lead over his arch-rival, Denmark's Jonas Vingegaard.

Australian Kaden Groves won stage 20 with a solo breakaway, while Pogacar crossed the finish line seven minutes later, at the same time as Vingegaard.

The Slovenian cycling star, who is teammate of Mexican Isaac del Toro on the UAE Emirates team, leads two-time Tour de France winner Vingegaard by four minutes and 24 seconds in the overall standings, while Germany's Florian Lipowitz is third, 11:03 behind.

Barring a serious accident or illness, Pogacar is expected to win the title this Sunday, which would equal Britain's Chris Froome with four Tour titles. Victory would also give him his fifth Grand Tour title, after winning the Giro d'Italia in 2024.

I'm more or less confident in my overall victory, but I don't want to say anything about it yet. I want to stay focused until I cross the finish line in Paris , Pogacar declared. That's one of the most beautiful parts of this sport. We're 180 guys who spend weeks riding in the mountains and at the end, suddenly, we arrive on the streets of one of the biggest cities in the world , he added.

For his part, Groves, who achieved his first stage victory on the French tour, benefited from a crash 21 kilometers from the finish on wet asphalt that ruled out Spaniard Iván Romeo from the victory while leading the breakaway group.

The Australian, an accomplished sprinter with nine Grand Tour victories before this Saturday, opened his Tour de France career after soloing a breakaway that gave his team its third stage victory in this edition of the Grande Boucle .

It's the first time I've won solo. I had great legs, and when it started to rain, I believed even more , said Groves, who won by almost a minute over Dutchmen Frank van den Broek and Pascal Eenkhoorn, and who will also be a contender for victory this Sunday.

The final stage of the Tour de France is largely a processional stage, with the overall leader almost guaranteed to win, barring any setbacks, and the sprinters competing for the stage win after several laps around Paris.

But this year, the final stage will be very different, breaking with decades of tradition and potentially spectacular, featuring three ascents of Montmartre Hill, a short, steep climb that was featured at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Around 3,000 police officers will be deployed along the 132.3-kilometer route, which begins outside Paris in Mantes-la-Ville before heading into the city.

With information from AP and AFP

▲ The Dutchman, four-time world champion, will look to repeat his victory in the main race today. Photo AFP

Afp and Ap

La Jornada Newspaper, Sunday, July 27, 2025, p. a10

Spa-Francorchamps., In a new era without manager Chris Horner, Dutchman Max Verstappen, four-time world champion with Red Bull, won the sprint race at the Belgian Grand Prix, although he will now face a more complex challenge in the main event this Sunday, in which Briton Lando Norris will start from pole position .

In the early hours of Saturday, Verstappen won the sprint race after overtaking Oscar Piastri's McLaren from the opening lap. The Australian chased the Dutchman's car for the remainder of the race, but couldn't find a way to catch the four-time world champion.

Verstappen's sprint victory at Spa-Francorchamps is Red Bull's first success since Frenchman Laurent Mekies took over as chief executive of the Austrian team following Horner's unexpected departure earlier this month.

I'm happy, it went very well. We took advantage of the only chance we had to beat the McLarens. I couldn't afford to make any mistakes. It was difficult to keep them behind me , Verstappen said of Piastri and Norris, second and third, respectively, in that race.

Mekies, who served as deputy team principal, was handed the reins at Red Bull after Horner was sacked following the team's disappointing performance in Great Britain. Among the reasons for the dismissal were an internal investigation into inappropriate behavior, in addition to the fact that this has been one of the team's worst seasons.

Mekies arrives just as Red Bull's star driver Verstappen, who has received offers to change teams, is in third place in the overall standings with 165 points, while McLaren leads the competition with Oscar Piastri (234) and Lando Norris (226).

For now, Norris secured pole position for today's Grand Prix after setting the fastest time in qualifying ahead of his teammate Piastri, who will start from second place. Monaco's Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) finished third, while Verstappen posted the fourth-fastest time, so he will once again need to fight back to score points.

The biggest surprise of the qualifying session was the elimination from Q1 of seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari), as his fastest time was invalidated for going outside the track limits.

Italian Andrea Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes) also disappointed, finishing 18th, behind Argentine Franco Colapinto (Alpine).

O'Ward will start second in Monterey

In IndyCar, Mexican driver Patricio O'Ward will start from second place in the Monterey GP in California, while Spaniard Álex Palou took pole .

Both face a direct fight for the championship, as Palou leads the overall standings with 536 points, 99 points more than O'Ward, who has won two of the last three races.

A tragic note reached motorsports after at least three spectators died yesterday during the Rallye de la Fourme in Puy-de-Dôme, central France, after being struck by a car that went off the road.

The 22-year-old driver of the race car was injured, but her life is not in danger, nor is that of her co-driver. The three victims are two brothers, aged 70 and 60, and a 44-year-old father, according to the prosecutor's office, which has opened an investigation into the circumstances of the accident.

▲ The Cacique Mara team from Maracaibo had earned their ticket to the tournament last month in Mexico. Photo @plbvcaciquemara

The Independent

La Jornada Newspaper, Sunday, July 27, 2025, p. a10

Josh Marcus. The Trump administration has refused to issue visas to the Venezuelan youth baseball champion team to play in the upcoming Little League World Championship in the United States.

The team, Cacique Mara, from Maracaibo, whose members are between 15 and 16 years old, reported that they traveled to Colombia two weeks ago to apply for U.S. visas for the tournament, but were rejected under the travel ban issued in June by the Trump administration.

"The players are demoralized ," Chief Mara wrote in a statement on social media earlier this week. "All they know is baseball. They want to compete and honor Venezuela and Latin America. They pose no threat; they're 15-year-olds who want to win the World Series ."

Little League International, which organizes the weeklong teen tournament in South Carolina, said in a statement that the denial was extremely disappointing, especially for these young athletes .

Our consular officers are currently working to review the case and confirm that proper procedures were followed and that the visa applicants filed the necessary appeals , a State Department official told The Independent .

In June, the administration announced travel bans on 12 countries, as well as partial restrictions on seven others, including Venezuela, citing the need to protect Americans from foreign terrorists and other national security threats. The measure includes exceptions, such as those for athletes traveling to major tournaments.

"We were told Venezuela is on the list because Trump says Venezuelans are a threat to his country's security ," Kendrick Gutiérrez, president of the Venezuelan Little League organization, told ESPN. "It hasn't been easy. We earned the right to represent Latin America in the world championship ."

The White House has had repeated clashes with Venezuela.

The Trump administration has contradicted its own intelligence community and accused Venezuela of collaborating with the Tren de Aragua gang, which it considers a terrorist group.

Venezuela also temporarily refused to accept repatriation flights from the United States and harshly criticized U.S. authorities for the summary deportation of hundreds of Venezuelans to a notorious prison in El Salvador on charges of gang membership. The men have since returned to Venezuela in a prisoner exchange with U.S. authorities.

Cacique Mara secured a spot in the tournament in Easley last month, winning all five of its games at the Little League Latin American Championship in Mexico.

They will now be replaced by the tournament's second-ranked team, Mexico's Santa María de Aguayo, from Ciudad Victoria, Tamaulipas.

The World Series for players ages 13 to 16 began yesterday and will run through August. Venezuelan teams have won the title three times, most recently in 2006.

▲ Cruz Azul player Rodolfo Rotondi competes for the ball in the air with León players at the Estadio Olímpico Universitario. Photo: Cuartoscuro

Alberto Aceves

La Jornada Newspaper, Sunday, July 27, 2025, p. a11

On a thunderous night at Ciudad Universitaria, Cruz Azul turned a disconcerting match around with a piece of individual genius in the style of Hugo Sánchez. While their first two attempts fell to goalkeeper Óscar Damián García, Mexican Ángel Sepúlveda scored the third, as Real Madrid's legendary top scorer has done so many times, to pave the way for a 4-1 victory over León in a Estadio Olímpico Universitario that chanted his name.

Sepúlveda invented new plays from routine passes. On the three occasions he managed to receive the ball with his back turned, raise his body, and shoot in the air, his teammates rushed out to shout the goal. They didn't count on the young García, with exceptional agility and reaction speed, who cleared the ball a couple of times over the line. On the final shot, there was nothing they could do.

The 1-0 scoreline changed the mood of the entire stadium, which was initially euphoric and illuminated by a light show and fireworks, but as time passed, the team became less confident in the level of its players under the command of Argentine Nicolás Larcamón. Rain flooded the hallways and stairwells at Ciudad Universitaria, but La Máquina remained confident in its style of play.

He built plays from Kevin Mier's goal, nullified the quality of Colombian James Rodríguez in midfield, and every time he attacked through Luka Romero, shots from Sepúlveda, José Paradela, and Lorenzo Faravelli went just wide of La Fiera's goal.

To change the course of errors, Carlos Rodríguez converted two of his shots into goals (66 and 87). Then, recently substituted Jeremy Márquez, from long distance, followed suit with the fourth goal (90+3). An own goal by Jesús Orozco Chiquete (78) put the end to a victorious night for Cruz Azul in doubt, even more so when the security of their defenders began to break down.

But Larcamón did what had worked so well for him at clubs like Necaxa and Puebla: compete, defend, and play with the tempo until his opponent's faith was extinguished. He thus achieved his first victory as manager of the Celestes in the tournament.

Relegated

In early 2024, Javier Hernández's return to Guadalajara drew 45,000 fans to the Akron stadium, a crowd any first-division team would want at its matches. Chicharito , 37, is no longer the same player who left for Manchester United in 2010, nor the one who elevated his name to the pedestal of the three favorites for the Mexican fans: Hugo Sánchez, Rafael Márquez, and Cuauhtémoc Blanco, World Cup players and international figures.

Accused of urging women to be led by a man, accusing them of eradicating masculinity and asking them to embody their feminine energy by caring for, nurturing, cleaning, and sustaining the home, which is the most precious place for men , Hernández watched the Rebaño 's 4-3 victory over Atlético de San Luis, sidelined by injury, his tenth since he began his second stint with the team.

With just five months remaining on his contract, the Red and White board also suspended him from playing in the Leagues Cup, a tournament scheduled for next week in the United States. Chivas didn't need the forward who 15 years ago wanted to conquer the world; the supportive attitude of players like Richy Ledezma, Cade Cowell, and, above all, Armando González, a star with a brace (84 and 90) to secure their first home win, was enough.

Although the Potosí team responded with goals from Eduardo Águila (50), João Pedro (69, penalty) and Benjamín Galdames (75), turning the game around, the entry of Hormiga González in the second half, plus the own goal by Juan Manuel Sanabria (11) and the goal by Cade Cowell (45+1), sentenced the score in the debut of the Argentine coach Gabriel Milito at home.

In other matches, Pachuca defeated Mazatlán 1-0, Tigres beat Toluca 4-3, and Monterrey defeated Atlas 3-1.

From the Editorial Staff

La Jornada Newspaper, Sunday, July 27, 2025, p. a11

The reigning world champions of Spain will play the final of the 2025 Women's Euro Cup today at St. Jakob Park in Basel against England, the reigning champions, in a striking duel that will relive the decisive match of the 2023 World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, where the Iberians sealed a 1-0 victory with a memorable goal from Olga Carmona.

It will also be the third time the two teams have met in less than six months, having met in the recent UEFA Women's Nations League. In February, England won 1-0 at Wembley, and in June, Spain won 2-1 in Barcelona, securing their place in the semi-finals in October.

In this year's European Championship, both teams were contenders to reach the final and lived up to expectations; however, they arrived at this decisive match with a different, much more complex and dramatic path for the English team.

Spain, led by Montse Tomé, has shown more determination and resolve than its rival, who has had to resort to saving goals, extra time, and penalties to try to defend its throne.

La Roja arrives undefeated and with a perfect record of victories so far, favored by a more manageable initial path than that of the Leonas, led by Sarina Wiegman.

The Iberians dominated Group B with authority, with victories over Portugal (5-0), Belgium (6-2) and Italy (3-1), then beat the host Switzerland in the quarterfinals, and finally starred in a high-voltage semifinal against Germany, their first top-level opponent.

England endured much more suffering, opening with a demanding match against France, which ended in a 2-1 defeat. However, they improved from there, and after advancing from the group stage, where they also faced the Netherlands and Wales, they defeated Sweden in the quarterfinals and Italy in the semifinals to reach the title fight.

The captain of the Iberian national team, Irene Paredes, explained the moment of maturity and quality with which her team reaches this new final, where, she said, they have the objective of continuing to make history after winning the World Cup two years ago, a triumph that was overshadowed after Luis Rubiales, then president of Spanish football, forced a kiss on Jennifer Hermoso, which unleashed an international scandal.