Frenchman Dorian Godon wins the sprint and becomes leader of the event

“First victory in the World Tour, you just had to be patient and I am rewarded”reacted the winner of the day to the microphone of our colleagues from The team. Dorian Godon (Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale) won, after a massive sprint, the first stage of the Tour de Romandie (Switzerland), Wednesday April 24 in Fribourg, and also takes the lead in the general classification, 6 seconds ahead of Belgian Gianni Vermeersch and 9 seconds ahead of Julian Alaphilippe.

“I had complicated feelings all day with the cold, it was hard. The whole team did a great job”, insisted the 27-year-old runner, who was able to seize a great opportunity in 5 degrees and under the threat of rain. Fourth in the prologue the day before, the 1.90m Ile-de-France native adds a ninth victory to his record, having won the Flèche Brabançonne in 2023.

This first stage took place over 165.7 km, with 2,617 m of positive altitude difference, between Château-d’Œx, in the Vaudois Alps, and Fribourg. With a lot of terrain – notably the Lorette and Arconciel bumps – and the possibility of finishing in a sprint, the event seemed tailor-made for Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal-Quick Step). Building on his third place in the prologue the day before, the double world champion (2020, 2021) was expected to be the favorite. His two attacks, at 11 and 6 km from the finish, did not pay off and he was easily caught by the peloton.

Coup double

It was ultimately Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale which carried out the great operation here, with a double blow since second place in the stage went to the Italian Andrea Vendrame. This is already the eleventh victory of the season for the French team. The German Juri Hollmann (Alpecin-Deceuninck) takes the mountain points and takes on the sky blue jersey of best climber.

On Thursday, the second stage will take the peloton 171 km from Friborg to Salvan-Les Marécottes for the first finish at the summit of this Tour de Romandie after an ascent of 7.6 km at 7.5%. The race is due to end on Sunday April 28 in Vernier, near Geneva. Briton Adam Yates, 2023 and 41 title holder^e of today’s stage, is one of the favorites but will have to be wary of the competition, notably embodied by Aleksandr Vlasov, Juan Ayuso and Jai Hindley.

New Delhi: The technical committee of the All India Football Federation (AIFF) has recommended former international Langam Chaoba Devi as the head coach of the senior women’s national football team after her successful stint during the Turkish Women’s Cup in February this year.

The committee took the decision after consultations during a meeting held virtually under the chairmanship of IM Vijayan on Wednesday. The meeting was attended by technical committee members, including Pinky Bompal Magar, Shabbir Ali, Victor Amalraj, Santosh Singh and Climax Lawrence. AIFF Technical Director Syed Sabir Pasha was present in the meeting.

After extensive deliberations, the committee recommended Langam Chaoba Devi as the head coach of the senior women’s national team. It also recommended Priya PV and Ronibala Chanu as assistant and goalkeeping coaches respectively for the senior women’s national team. All three coaches recommended by the technical committee had done duty for the senior women’s team during the Turkish Women’s Cup in Alanya, Turkey in February this year.

The committee discussed the appointments of coaches for the men’s U16 and men’s U19 teams. After considering the applications received, the committee recommended the following names:

U16 men’s national team:

Head Coach: Ishfaq Ahmed

Assistant Coach: Yan Cheng Law

Goalkeeping Coach: Mohammad Zakir Hussain

U19 men’s national team:

Head Coach: Ranjan Chaudhary

Goalkeeping Coach: Sandeep Nandi.