MULHOUSE // Trek sports director Alain Gallopin wept for joy on Sunday after watching his nephew Tony, who rides for rivals Lotto-Belisol, take the Tour de France overall leader’s yellow jersey on the eve of Bastille Day.
Mulhouse, where the ninth stage ended, was also where the late French Tour great Laurent Fignon took his last stage win in 1992, with the older Gallopin working as his soigneur, or caretaker.
“It’s a huge emotion for me,” Alain Gallopin said after his own team rider Fabian Cancellara finished second.
“For my family, there are no words. We’ve been in cycling for 50 years. Every weekend in every corner of France, there is a Gallopin racing. Seeing him in yellow today is something very, very special.
“I could not hold off my emotions to see Laurent ... to see Tony snatch the jersey, I thought of Laurent.”
Tony Gallopin received some help from Cancellara as the group counter-attacked in the stage finale and he tried to increase the gap to Italy’s Vincenzo Nibali, who was wearing the yellow jersey.
The Swiss powerhouse put in some hard work at the front of the small group, even though he had no personal interest in doing so.
The new leader is 1 minute, 34 seconds clear of Nibali going into today’s 11th stage, a 161.5-kilometre trek from Mulhouse to La Planche des Belles Filles.
Alain Gallopin, who said it was hard to stay focused yesterday, had a big influence on his nephew’s career.
“He trusts me 100 per cent,” he said. “One day [in 2006], he and his father came to me for advice. He was selected for both the European juniors and the world championships. I told him how he should do and it worked.”
Gallopin, the first Frenchman in yellow since Thomas Voeckler in 2011, claimed medals in three of the four events he entered.
“Since then, he has been trusting me,” his uncle said.
While Gallopin grabbed the yellow jersey, it was German rider Tony Martin who showed he has climbing skills to go with his speed by easily winning the stage.
The German, 29, a three-time world time-trial champion, broke away with specialist climber Alessandro De Marchi of Italy and eventually won by nearly three minutes.
Nibali’s week-long hold on the yellow jersey came to an end, but his Astana team say they are where they want to be as the Tour heads into its first major mountain stage.
Monday’s stage has been labelled a duel between Italy’s Nibali and Spaniard Alberto Contador, since defending champion Chris Froome pulled out injured on Wednesday.
Nibali’s performance on the tricky cobbles on the fifth stage means he holds a 2:34 advantage over Contador with the mountains looming.
Although Nibali lost three seconds to Contador in the first hilltop finish on Saturday as his team showed a first glimpse of weakness, Astana got rid of the burden of controlling the race yesterday when deciding not to chase a counter-attack group.
“We saw that Gallopin was in that group, but we were not going to kill our team to keep the jersey,” Astana team manager Alexandre Vinokourov said.
“The most important thing was to save energy for tomorrow’s stage. Tomorrow will be another great finale between Vincenzo and Alberto at La Planche des Belles Filles.”
That said, the team were savouring the moment, for sure.
“This yellow jersey was a present for France,” added the Kazakh, who started his professional career with French team Casino.
Nibali is seeking to become the sixth man to win all three grand Tours (France, Spain, Italy) after Frenchmen Jacques Anquetil and Bernard Hinault, compatriot Felice Gimondi, Belgium’s Eddy Merckx and Contador.
He won the Vuelta in 2010 and the Giro in 2013.
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Basquiat in Abu Dhabi
One of Basquiat’s paintings, the vibrant Cabra (1981–82), now hangs in Louvre Abu Dhabi temporarily, on loan from the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi.
The latter museum is not open physically, but has assembled a collection and puts together a series of events called Talking Art, such as this discussion, moderated by writer Chaedria LaBouvier.
It's something of a Basquiat season in Abu Dhabi at the moment. Last week, The Radiant Child, a documentary on Basquiat was shown at Manarat Al Saadiyat, and tonight (April 18) the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi is throwing the re-creation of a party tonight, of the legendary Canal Zone party thrown in 1979, which epitomised the collaborative scene of the time. It was at Canal Zone that Basquiat met prominent members of the art world and moved from unknown graffiti artist into someone in the spotlight.
“We’ve invited local resident arists, we’ll have spray cans at the ready,” says curator Maisa Al Qassemi of the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi.
Guggenheim Abu Dhabi's Canal Zone Remix is at Manarat Al Saadiyat, Thursday April 18, from 8pm. Free entry to all. Basquiat's Cabra is on view at Louvre Abu Dhabi until October
ELIO
Starring: Yonas Kibreab, Zoe Saldana, Brad Garrett
Directors: Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi, Adrian Molina
Rating: 4/5
Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
Electric scooters: some rules to remember
- Riders must be 14-years-old or over
- Wear a protective helmet
- Park the electric scooter in designated parking lots (if any)
- Do not leave electric scooter in locations that obstruct traffic or pedestrians
- Solo riders only, no passengers allowed
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
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OIL PLEDGE
At the start of Russia's invasion, IEA member countries held 1.5 billion barrels in public reserves and about 575 million barrels under obligations with industry, according to the agency's website. The two collective actions of the IEA this year of 62.7 million barrels, which was agreed on March 1, and this week's 120 million barrels amount to 9 per cent of total emergency reserves, it added.
The specs: 2019 Haval H6
Price, base: Dh69,900
Engine: 2.0-litre turbocharged four-cylinder
Transmission: Seven-speed automatic
Power: 197hp @ 5,500rpm
Torque: 315Nm @ 2,000rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 7.0L / 100km
Watch live
The National will broadcast live from the IMF on Friday October 13 at 7pm UAE time (3pm GMT) as our Editor-in-Chief Mina Al-Oraibi moderates a panel on how technology can help growth in MENA.
You can find out more here
US PGA Championship in numbers
1 Joost Luiten produced a memorable hole in one at the par-three fourth in the first round.
2 To date, the only two players to win the PGA Championship after winning the week before are Rory McIlroy (2014 WGC-Bridgestone Invitational) and Tiger Woods (2007, WGC-Bridgestone Invitational). Hideki Matsuyama or Chris Stroud could have made it three.
3 Number of seasons without a major for McIlroy, who finished in a tie for 22nd.
4 Louis Oosthuizen has now finished second in all four of the game's major championships.
5 In the fifth hole of the final round, McIlroy holed his longest putt of the week - from 16ft 8in - for birdie.
6 For the sixth successive year, play was disrupted by bad weather with a delay of one hour and 43 minutes on Friday.
7 Seven under par (64) was the best round of the week, shot by Matsuyama and Francesco Molinari on Day 2.
8 Number of shots taken by Jason Day on the 18th hole in round three after a risky recovery shot backfired.
9 Jon Rahm's age in months the last time Phil Mickelson missed the cut in the US PGA, in 1995.
10 Jimmy Walker's opening round as defending champion was a 10-over-par 81.
11 The par-four 11th coincidentally ranked as the 11th hardest hole overall with a scoring average of 4.192.
12 Paul Casey was a combined 12 under par for his first round in this year's majors.
13 The average world ranking of the last 13 PGA winners before this week was 25. Kevin Kisner began the week ranked 25th.
14 The world ranking of Justin Thomas before his victory.
15 Of the top 15 players after 54 holes, only Oosthuizen had previously won a major.
16 The par-four 16th marks the start of Quail Hollow's so-called "Green Mile" of finishing holes, some of the toughest in golf.
17 The first round scoring average of the last 17 major champions was 67.2. Kisner and Thorbjorn Olesen shot 67 on day one at Quail Hollow.
18 For the first time in 18 majors, the eventual winner was over par after round one (Thomas shot 73).
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Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
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The alternatives
• Founded in 2014, Telr is a payment aggregator and gateway with an office in Silicon Oasis. It’s e-commerce entry plan costs Dh349 monthly (plus VAT). QR codes direct customers to an online payment page and merchants can generate payments through messaging apps.
• Business Bay’s Pallapay claims 40,000-plus active merchants who can invoice customers and receive payment by card. Fees range from 1.99 per cent plus Dh1 per transaction depending on payment method and location, such as online or via UAE mobile.
• Tap started in May 2013 in Kuwait, allowing Middle East businesses to bill, accept, receive and make payments online “easier, faster and smoother” via goSell and goCollect. It supports more than 10,000 merchants. Monthly fees range from US$65-100, plus card charges of 2.75-3.75 per cent and Dh1.2 per sale.
• 2checkout’s “all-in-one payment gateway and merchant account” accepts payments in 200-plus markets for 2.4-3.9 per cent, plus a Dh1.2-Dh1.8 currency conversion charge. The US provider processes online shop and mobile transactions and has 17,000-plus active digital commerce users.
• PayPal is probably the best-known online goods payment method - usually used for eBay purchases - but can be used to receive funds, providing everyone’s signed up. Costs from 2.9 per cent plus Dh1.2 per transaction.
ETFs explained
Exhchange traded funds are bought and sold like shares, but operate as index-tracking funds, passively following their chosen indices, such as the S&P 500, FTSE 100 and the FTSE All World, plus a vast range of smaller exchanges and commodities, such as gold, silver, copper sugar, coffee and oil.
ETFs have zero upfront fees and annual charges as low as 0.07 per cent a year, which means you get to keep more of your returns, as actively managed funds can charge as much as 1.5 per cent a year.
There are thousands to choose from, with the five biggest providers BlackRock’s iShares range, Vanguard, State Street Global Advisors SPDR ETFs, Deutsche Bank AWM X-trackers and Invesco PowerShares.
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How to get exposure to gold
Although you can buy gold easily on the Dubai markets, the problem with buying physical bars, coins or jewellery is that you then have storage, security and insurance issues.
A far easier option is to invest in a low-cost exchange traded fund (ETF) that invests in the precious metal instead, for example, ETFS Physical Gold (PHAU) and iShares Physical Gold (SGLN) both track physical gold. The VanEck Vectors Gold Miners ETF invests directly in mining companies.
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London-listed Centamin is up more than 70 per cent in just three months, although in a sign of its volatility, it is down 5 per cent on two years ago. Trans-Siberian Gold, listed on London's alternative investment market (AIM) for small stocks, has seen its share price almost quadruple from 34p to 124p over the same period, but do not assume this kind of runaway growth can continue for long
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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Company/date started: 2015
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Daily visitors to Dragon Mart in 2010: 20,000
Percentage increase in visitors in eight years: 500 per cent
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Catch 74kg
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Kaan Ofli (TUR) bt Walid Laidi (ALG) by TKO.
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Abdulla Al Bousheiri (KUW) bt Leandro Martins (BRA) by TKO.
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Ahmad Labban (LEB) bt Sofiane Benchohra (ALG) by TKO.
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Mohammed Yahya (UAE) bt Glen Ranillo (PHI) by TKO round 1.
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Alan Omer (GER) bt Aidan Aguilera (AUS) by TKO round 1.
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Mounir Lazzez (TUN) bt Sasha Palatkinov (HKG) by TKO round 1.
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MATCH INFO
UAE Division 1
Abu Dhabi Harlequins 12-24 Abu Dhabi Saracens
