Cycling • Tracing a route that limits the strengths of defending champion Chris Froome, the 2014 Tour de France will rattle over bone-jarring cobblestones, pay homage to World War I battlefields, climb unfamiliar mountains in the east of France and have only one time trial.
Starting in Leeds, England, on July 5, the 101st Tour ends 22 days later, as is traditional, on the Champs-Elysees in Paris. With 25 ascents, the same as the 2012 edition won by Bradley Wiggins and only three fewer than this year's centennial dominated by Froome, the 2014 race will again suit strong climbers perhaps even more so than in previous years because of the reduced emphasis on time-trialing.
Weir retires to join broadcast team
Figure Skating • Johnny Weir, the three-time U.S. figure skating champion retired from competition Wednesday he still plans to skate in shows and will join NBC for the Sochi Games.
"I am outlandish and flamboyant and all those things," Weir said. "There was a focus on all that in my career, which I am fine with, but there also was a little attention paid to how hard I actually worked and how much went into it and how I came back so many times. Sweating every day for that one moment, and I wish people focused on that as much as my characters and my costumes."
From wire reports