Talk » Clarkson would benefit from playing with players like Joffrey

SAINT-GERVAIS-LES-BAINS, France -- If Chris Froome wins the Tour de France on Sunday, it wont have been an easy ride to the Champs Elysees.After a pile-up forced him to run up part of Mont Ventoux last week, the two-time champion escaped from another crash on Friday during a chaotic and spectacular penultimate Alpine stage held in stormy and wet weather.Two days before the ceremonial ride to Paris, rain played havoc at the Tour, causing many crashes and reshuffling places in the general classification. But Froome was lucky enough to escape with no serious injury, and even emerge with a bigger lead overall.A crash like that could have gone either way, and Im grateful that nothing is injured, Froome said. Never a quiet day on the Tour.Since he took his rivals by surprise with a daring downhill attack that earned him the race leaders yellow jersey on the eighth stage, media reports have portrayed Froome as the inevitable winner. Day after day, as his overall lead built up, Froome kept insisting that the Tour was not over.Fridays 19th stage proved him right.Froome, who won the Tour in 2013 and 2015 and crashed out of the 2014 race, hit the ground with former Tour champion Vincenzo Nibali in a descent, soon after Romain Bardet launched a decisive attack to post the first French victory at this years race.Froome did not panic, quickly borrowed a teammates bike and salvaged his torn yellow jersey after crossing the finish line 36 seconds behind Bardet. The Frenchman climbed to second place overall after Froomes previous closest rival, Bauke Mollema, crashed and never recovered.Froome increased his lead by 19 seconds, holding a lead of 4 minutes, 11 seconds over Bardet, with two-time runner-up Nairo Quintana of Colombia moving up to third, 4:27 back.Froome slipped on road paint as he crossed a white line and hit the ground just 13.5 kilometers (8 miles) from the finish of the nervy 146-kilometer (91-mile) ride to Saint-Gervais Mont Blanc featuring four ascents.He was able to continue racing after swapping bikes with teammate Geraint Thomas.I think that I hit one of the white lines on the road and lost my front wheel, Froome said at the finish, his right knee heavily bandaged. Im okay, Im lucky that nothing is seriously injured.Froome was descending at a relatively cautious speed of almost 45 kph (28 mph) when he fell. With his jersey torn, blood dripping down his right leg, cuts and bruises on his back and blood on his right elbow, Froome understandably looked uncomfortable on Thomas bike.Despite the circumstances, Froome caught up with the group of favorites in the brutal final climb to Le Bettex with the help of teammate Wouter Poels.Froome crossed the line grimacing in pain, then put his arm around Poels to thank him for the support.I just lost a bit of skin but today, Froome said. It was great for me to have teammates all the way up until the finish there, with Wout in particular and all the guys. It was a great team effort and it feels great to be one day closer to Paris.Mollema was one of the many riders who fell in the damp weather, with Daniel Navarro and Tom Dumoulin forced to abandon.Im not too badly injured, just a hip and elbow, said Mollema, who crashed at a roundabout as his hopes of finishing on the podium in Paris disappeared. The classification is gone. Im 10th now, but that was not the goal.Bardet was the days big winner after posting his second Tour stage win.I rode with my instinct. Im second overall, I won the stage, its beautiful, he said.Spaniard Joaquim Rodriguez finished the stage in second place, in the same time as Alejandro Valverde, 23 seconds back. In the overall, Adam Yates dropped from third to fourth, nine seconds behind Quintana.The day had started quietly for Froome, who joked with Peter Sagan at the front of the pack after a group of 20 riders immediately jumped away from the peloton. The best-placed rider in the breakaway was Frenchman Pierre Rolland, who lagged 22:51 minutes behind Froome overall at the start, and Team Sky did not chase.But the ideal scenario changed dramatically when the weather turned wet. As rain started to fall, Michael Matthews was among the first escapees to be caught a few kilometers from the summit of the punishing Montee de Bisane, a 12-kilometer climb with an average gradient of eight percent.Rolland then moved away from his breakaway companions in the ski resort of Les Saisies, with former world champion Rui Costa following right on his wheel. But the Frenchman slid off the road on the descent and heavily hit the tarmac. With his jersey lacerated and covered with dirt, Rolland remounted his bike after consulting with the race doctor and finished the stage.Froome needs to negotiate one more tricky mountain stage on Saturday before the ceremonial ride to Paris.Tomorrow is going to be hard, its going to be really hard and Im sure that Im going to be a bit stiff after today, he said. Hopefully I can rely on my teammates and its just one last push.---AP Sports Writer Andrew Dampf contributed to this report. Yoan Moncada Jersey White Sox . Zvonareva, who won the tournament in 2009 and 10, couldnt handle her opponents big groundstrokes in only her third event back after 17 months out with a shoulder injury. Zvonareva made her comeback in January in Shenzhen and played in the Australian Open but lost her first matches at both tournaments. Herb Score Jersey White Sox . Soukalova missed only one target and completed the 15-kilometre course in 40 minutes, 32.6 seconds for both victories in this seasons individual discipline. Darya Domracheva of Belarus was second, 34. https://www.discountjerseysonline.com/mark-prior-jersey-cubs-262 . On June 12, just as the sun sets on the magnificent historical city of Sao Paulo the inventors, innovators and purveyors of “joga bonitowill” open their campaign. The opponent, Croatia and all its football might and will. As opposites do attract we are set for a corker of an opener. Jim Rice Jersey Red Sox . Team physician Dr. Steve Traina performed the surgery Friday. Robinson was injured in a spill underneath the Nuggets basket during the first quarter of Wednesday nights loss to the Charlotte Bobcats. Clark Griffith Jersey White Sox . "I wrote 36 on my sheet at the beginning of the game," the Cincinnati coach said, referring the yard line the ball would need to be snapped from.The Toronto Maple Leafs made a bold move on the first day of free agency, committing a big-money, long-term contract to a player who provides a rare combination of goal-scoring and toughness. Numbers Game examines the Leafs signing David Clarkson. The Maple Leafs Get: RW David Clarkson. Clarkson, 29, was one of the most-coveted free agents on the market, having scored 45 goals and accruing 216 penalty minutes in 128 games over the last two seasons. Hes also had very strong puck possession stats over the last couple years too. An undrafted winger, who played for Kitchener in the Ontario Hockey League, Clarkson has fought his way into a significant NHL career, fighting 76 times in six NHL seasons (though only 13 in the last two years) and played a career-high 17:36 per game last season. Clarkson has also been durable. Aside from 2009-2010, when he missed 36 games with a broken fibula, he hasnt missed more than two games in any of his other five NHL seasons. If that durability is an indication that he might have the longevity to be productive into his mid-30s (and I have no idea if it is), that would work in the Leafs favour. In Toronto, Clarkson is getting paid to be a scorer. Sure, hell be expected to fight because that fits with the Leafs plan of attack under Carlyle, and with Clarksons track record, but at seven years and $36.75-million (a $5.25-million cap hit), Clarkson needs to be a productive offensive player. Clarkson did generate a career-best 3.75 shots on goal last season, which ranked eighth in the league, while playing primarily with Patrik Elias (and either Travis Zajac or Adam Henrique down the middle). His game isnt based on his creating chances by carrying the puck like, say, Phil Kessel, rathher Clarkson is a guy who gets his nose dirty and gets to the front of the net for his chances, so if hes going to make the most of his opportunity in Toronto, Clarkson would benefit from playing with players like Joffrey Lupul or Nazem Kadri, who handle the puck more frequently.dddddddddddd There could be real trouble if Clarkson doesnt have sufficient puckhandlers/playmakers skating with him. In the short-term, the Maple Leafs are better by adding Clarkson to their team, but the question is how long he can remain a productive offensive player. After all, Clarkson has scored more than 32 points just once in his career. The last three years or so of his contract, when hell be 33-to-35-years-old, are high risk because if Clarkson isnt scoring enough to be top-six forward at that point of his career, hell still be getting paid a premium rate; too much for just a physical presence. New Jersey, in response to losing Clarkson, signed Ryane Clowe, another forward who has toughness and offensive ability, giving the Devils have some options to round out their top six forwards. The Maple Leafs have set a certain identity under head coach Randy Carlyle and that is a physical team that will fight and score, so while Clarkson had appeal to many teams, he was obviously extra-appealing to a team that plays that style. Its hard to imagine the deal being good value in the long run, but if Clarkson is a fiery leader who scores 25 goals a season for the next four or five years, they may be able to live with a couple of years with less than ideal value at the end. Scott Cullen can be reached at Scott.Cullen@bellmedia.ca and followed on Twitter at http://twitter.com/tsnscottcullen. For more, check out TSN Fantasy on Facebook. ' ' '