Andre Greipel captures sixth stage of Tour

Andre Greipel captures sixth stage of Tour

MONTPELLIER, France

German rider Andre Greipel won Thursday’s sixth stage of the Tour de France in a sprint finish and Daryl Impey became the first South African to wear the race leader’s yellow jersey after taking it from teammate Simon Gerrans.

In baking hot temperatures, Greipel surged ahead some 500 meters from the line and held off a strong challenge from Peter Sagan and Marcel Kittel.

The 30-year-old Greipel dedicated his fifth career Tour stage win to his Lotto-Belisol teammate Jurgen Van den Broeck, who pulled out before the start of after failing to overcome a knee injury from a crash Wednesday.

The Tour’s first rest day is Monday.

Graves easily reaches sculls last 8 at Henley

HENLEY, England

John Graves of Cincinnati reached the Diamond Sculls quarterfinals by easily beating local rower Christopher Bodder at the Henley Royal Regatta on Thursday.

Graves will next row against Andreas Penker of Aachen University, Germany, who topped Adam Neill from Brentwood College School, Canada.

The University of Virginia also cruised to a win over Eton College, England, in a heat of the Temple Cup for student eights. Harvard qualified for the quarterfinals with a win over Oxford Brookes University C of England.

In the Visitors’ Cup for student and club coxless fours, Northeastern University Alumni beat Okeanos and Nereus of the Netherlands to move onto the last eight.

Rival soccer fans brawl at Las Vegas match

LAS VEGAS

Witnesses describe a chaotic scene when brawls broke out among rival soccer fans at a Las Vegas match.

Violence began in the parking lot Wednesday night when fans from two rival Mexican soccer teams — Chivas and Club America — arrived at Sam Boyd Stadium.

Officers arrived to quell the violence, but the tone was set for the rest of the night.

At one point witnesses say flares were thrown onto the field, and fireworks were being set off in the stands.

The match was stopped with minutes left when some fans stormed the field. After that, dozens of brawls broke out between rival fans. Police couldn’t say Thursday if anyone was arrested or how many people were hurt.

Chivas won, 1-0.

Briere signs with Habs; Devils keep Elias

Danny Briere’s heading home to his native Quebec. Patrick Elias is staying in New Jersey.

And leave it to the Boston Bruins and Dallas Stars to steal the headlines Thursday by completing a blockbuster trade a day before the start of the NHL’s free agency period. In exchanging seven players, the rebuilding Stars acquired forwards Tyler Seguin and Rich Peverley in exchange for veteran forward Loui Eriksson.

The trade should be a benefit to the Bruins in their approach to free agency. They were able to clear about $4.75 million in space under the salary cap, which they can use to add and re-sign players.

Italian club penalized for soccer match-fixing

ROME

The second-tier Italian soccer team Bari will be penalized one point next season for match-fixing.

The Serie B club also will pay a $32,000 fine under the deal made with the Italian Football Federation’s disciplinary committee Thursday for fixing two matches — Bari-Treviso in May 2008 and Salernitana-Bari in May 2009. Several former Bari players also reached plea bargains.

Ex-Juventus assistant coach and Bari player Cristian Stellini received a six-month ban to be added to a previous suspension from last year. Stellini resigned from Antonio Conte’s staff at Juventus a year ago after his involvement in the scandal emerged.

The charges included fixing and failing to report fixing.

Vindicator staff/wire reports