LE MONETIER-LES-BAINS, FRANCE // Andy Schleck won the 18th stage of the Tour de France in a dazzling solo breakaway attack in the Alps yesterday, while Thomas Voeckler barely held on to the overall leader's yellow jersey.
Schleck attacked his main rivals on the second of three gruelling climbs and led all the way up 22.8km to the highest-altitude finish in the race's 108-year history, on the fabled Galibier pass, 2,645m above sea level.
Explaining why he had gone for broke, the stage winner said: "I don't want to finish fourth in Paris, and I said to myself 'I'm going to risk everything, it'll work or it'll fail.' That's the way I am. I'm not afraid of losing. And if my legs were hurting out in front I knew the others would be hurting to catch me up.
"I've won the stage, I'm into second overall, perhaps tomorrow it'll be the yellow jersey. I wanted to take the jersey but [Voeckler] surprised everyone."
Voeckler, the French cyclist, was 2:21 behind and saw his overall lead shrink to a mere 15 seconds over Schleck, whose brother, Frank, is third overall, 1:08 back. The three-time champion Alberto Contador was the day's biggest loser, trailing in 15th place, 3:50 behind.
The Spaniard was sixth when the gruelling 200.5km run began, 3:15 off the pace, but dropped back to seventh to lie 4:44 behind overall leader Voeckler after failing to keep tabs with the main yellow-jersey contenders in the closing kilometres.
That could well be "game over" for the controversial Saxo Bank rider.
For the Australian Cadel Evans it is still very much "game on", with the closing Alps stage today and tomorrow's penultimate 20th stage time trial still to come.
Frank Schleck was second in yesterday's stage, 2:07 behind his brother. Evans was third over the 201km route from Pinerolo.
Andy Schleck, the Leopard-Trek team leader, came in knowing that he needed to gain time ahead of tomorrow's time trial - a discipline that is not his speciality.
The pack faces the last of three days in the Alps today.
It again features an uphill finish, this time to the renowned and dreaded Alpe d'Huez.
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
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Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
Pad Man
Dir: R Balki
Starring: Akshay Kumar, Sonam Kapoor, Radhika Apte
Three-and-a-half stars
FIGHT CARD
Welterweight Mostafa Radi (PAL) v Tohir Zhuraev (TJK)
Catchweight 75kg Leandro Martins (BRA) v Anas Siraj Mounir (MAR)
Flyweight Corinne Laframboise (CAN) v Manon Fiorot (FRA)
Featherweight Ahmed Al Darmaki (UAE) v Bogdan Kirilenko (UZB)
Lightweight Izzedine Al Derabani (JOR) v Atabek Abdimitalipov (KYG)
Featherweight Yousef Al Housani (UAE) v Mohamed Arsharq Ali (SLA)
Catchweight 69kg Jung Han-gook (KOR) v Elias Boudegzdame (ALG)
Catchweight 71kg Usman Nurmagomedov (RUS) v Jerry Kvarnstrom (FIN)
Featherweight title Lee Do-gyeom (KOR) v Alexandru Chitoran (ROU)
Lightweight title Bruno Machado (BRA) v Mike Santiago (USA)
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
