MONT VENTOUX, France--A lanky guy in a yellow shirt runs on an asphalt road. Marathon runner? No, Tour de France overall leader Chris Froome on the slopes of Mont Ventoux.

The Briton looked set to extend his advantage over main rival Nairo Quintana after only Richie Porte and Bauke Mollema could follow his brutal acceleration 3km from the finish line on Thursday.
But as Porte was leading the trio, the TV motorbike in front of them stopped behind other motorbikes as hundreds of spectators blocked the road and the Australian crashed into it face first and fell off his bike. Behind him, Froome and Mollema also took a tumble but the Dutchman quickly got back on his bike. Not Froome.
"Ventoux is full of surprises. In the final kilometre we had to push hard on the brakes and the three of us hit the motorbike," said Froome. "There was another motorbike behind us which broke my bike."
Talking to his sports director Nicolas Portal through radio communication, Froome started to run towards the line as Porte came past him on his bike. "I told myself 'I don't have a bike and my car is five minutes behind with another bike, it's too far away, I'm going to run a bit," he added. "I had to run."
As the service car drove up to him, Froome paused and mounted the bike he was handed, only to realise the clips did not match his shoes. He dismounted the bike and waited a few seconds for his Team Sky car to arrive at the 400 metre banner, then completed the stage on a spare bike.
Despite losing over a minute Quintana of Colombia on the line, Froome eventually retained the yellow jersey after a decision by the race commissaries. "It was a nightmare," said Portal.
All ended well for Froome, however, as he was credited with the same time as Porte and Mollema and extended his lead to 47 seconds over compatriot Adam Yates.
Team Sky manager Dave Brailsford joked that Froome might have a bright future in running. "Maybe he'll run the Paris marathon next year," he said.
The cycling season has been marred by incidents involving motorbikes. In March, Belgian Antoine Demoitie, 25, died after being run over by a race motorbike during the Gent-Wevelgem classic race.

NEW YORK--The All-Star Game has come and gone and it is back to business in Major League Baseball, both on and off the diamond as teams ponder whether it is time to buy or sell talent with the Aug. 1 trade deadline looming.

All 30 clubs return to action on Friday following the All-Star break for a second-half push that will settle berths in the postseason playoffs leading to the World Series. Impactful players including Brewers catcher Jonathan Lucroy, slugger Jay Bruce of the Reds, Oakland starting pitcher Rich Hill and Yankees closer Aroldis Chapman are among presumed trade targets of contenders.
Last year, eventual World Series champions Kansas City Royals added starting pitcher Johnny Cueto and versatile regular Ben Zobrist, and National League pennant winning New York Mets turned their season around by adding slugger Yoenis Cespedes.
It takes two to tango, of course, so struggling teams such as the Oakland A's, Tampa Bay Rays and Cincinnati Reds are taking hard looks at their rosters with their future in mind. Eighteen clubs are within five games of a playoff spot with three division titles and two wildcard berths at stake in both the American and National League.
With demand strong, promising prospects could be changing hands in order to get an instant boost, giving teams on the bubble a delicate dilemma. One such club is the New York Yankees, who after adding Cuban fireballer Chapman to in-house relievers Andrew Miller and Dellin Betances in a pre-season trade with Cincinnati, have a troika of top-rate closer candidates.
The Yankees (44-44) cherish their winning tradition and 27 World Series crowns but stand 5 1/2 games out of a wildcard berth with six teams to leap over and have been keen to get younger on the field. Among their aged veterans is 39-year-old outfielder Carlos Beltran, who is enjoying a standout season with 19 home runs and becomes a free agent next year.
Among teams that figure to be in the market for starting pitching are the AL-West leading Texas Rangers, AL-East leading Baltimore Orioles and their division rivals the Boston Red Sox.
NL West-leading Giants and NL Central frontrunners the Chicago Cubs could use an end-of-game reliever. Available starters could come from the Rays (34-54), who may be tempted to swap Matt Moore, Drew Smyly or Jake Odorizzi for promising players, while Jeremy Hellickson of the Phillies and Drew Pomeranz of San Diego be moved for the right price.
Oakland outfielder Josh Reddick and third baseman Danny Valencia, along with Angels' third baseman Yunel Escobar and perhaps three-time All-Star Carlos Gonzalez of the Rockies are other trade options for offensively-needy contenders.
The Mets, Giants and Dodgers in the National League and the American League Central-leading Indians and division rival Kansas City could be looking to beef-up their attacks.
The blueprint for a playoff run is imprinted on the braintrusts of title dreamers, emboldened by the 2015 Royals and Mets, and Toronto's charge to the AL Championship Series after adding slugging shortstop Troy Tulowitzki and starter David Price. Who wants to build this season's powerhouse?

TROON, Scotland--Phil Mickelson charged up the leaderboard at the British Open on Thursday, grabbing the first-day lead and a share of the record for the best score in a major championship.

Aided by birdies on 10, 14, 16 and 17 on Royal Troon's tricky back nine, the 46-year-old American posted a 63, equalling the record low for majors first set by Johnny Miller in the 1973 U.S. Open. Mickelson came within a fraction of an inch of breaking the record outright. His curling 15-foot putt for birdie circled the hole on 18 before settling just outside it.
"That putt on 18 was an opportunity to do something historical," Mickelson said at a news conference. "I knew it, and with a foot to go I thought I had done it... and then I had the heartbreak that I didn't and watched that ball lip out. It was, wow, that stings."
It was still good enough for an eight-under effort and a bogey-free round, and it put him three ahead of compatriot Patrick Reed and Martin Kaymer of Germany. All three seemed to be well-positioned for the second day, but Kaymer at least was not getting ahead of himself.
"It's only a quarter of a marathon..." he said. "It's a good start, It's a very good start. But tomorrow we'll see how the weather will turn out and then play another good round. That's all you can do."
Reed's early 66, a round punctuated by an eagle from the fairway on the par-four third hole, set the clubhouse lead for much of the day. He has no intention of changing his approach, although the weather is forecast to turn wet and cold after Thursday's warm sun and gentle winds.
"My game plan is to play to certain areas on each hole," he said. "I'm not really going to stray too far away from that. It's just going to probably determine what club off the tee. Some holes today might have been a 4-iron, but if the wind is howling, it might be a 2-iron ... you just never know."
Just behind Reed and Kaymer were a shifting cast of players who kept threatening and the falling back throughout the day, making four-under a bar that was hard to clear. Rory McIlroy and Bubba Watson, among others, advanced to four or five-under and then retreated.
Northern Irishman McIlroy double-bogeyed the 13th to drop back from four under. Watson fell farther and faster: he was leading the championship on five under until he triple-bogeyed the short eighth, the Postage Stamp. Reed's eagle showed early on that it was possible to jump in the right direction, too.
Former champion Louis Oosthuizen emphasised the point when he aced the 14th hole, his tee shot taking two hops and diving out of sight, helping him to finish with a 71.
The day began with local favourite Colin Montgomerie hitting the opening drive, his first appearance at the Open in six years and what may well be his last. He carded a double-bogey on the first hole after finding one of Troon's deep greenside bunkers. But he took one shot back with a birdie on the third and another on the fourth.
The Scot narrowly missed a third straight birdie on the fifth, then went ahead and made one on the sixth. On the Postage Stamp, his tee shot landed within six feet of the pin. He made that birdie and added a fifth on the ninth, meaning as he finished his front nine, Montgomerie was tied for the lead on three-under.
He fared less well on the back nine but still finished at even-par.

NEW YORK--New England Patriots star Tom Brady on Wednesday lost a bid to have a U.S. appeals court reconsider his four-game suspension, in what could be the quarterback's last chance to avoid punishment over the "Deflategate" scandal.

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York said it would not review its April 25 decision to reinstate Brady's suspension by the National Football League over deflated footballs. If it stands, the suspension imposed by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell would force Brady, who turns 39 next month and was twice the league's most valuable player, to miss the first four games of the season beginning in September.
It would also end an 18-month saga that had become a major distraction for the NFL, which also faces criticism over player safety and the link between football and concussions.
The request for a rehearing by Brady and the National Football League Players Association had been considered a long shot because the appeals court rarely grants them. Brady can still appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, but it accepts to review only a small fraction of cases it considers.
The players union in a statement said it was disappointed by the order and will review its legal options, while maintaining that there were "clear violations" by the NFL and Goodell of their collective bargaining agreement. "Despite today's result, the track record of this League office when it comes to matters of player discipline is bad for our business and bad for our game," the union said. "We have a broken system that must be fixed."
Representatives for the NFL and Brady did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Brady was suspended after the NFL discovered underinflated footballs were used in the Patriots' 45-7 rout of the Indianapolis Colts in the January 2015 AFC championship game. The win propelled the Patriots to Super Bowl XLIX, where they beat the Seattle Seahawks, giving Brady his fourth title.
Brady was suspended after a lawyer hired by the league to investigate said the quarterback had been "generally aware" that two Patriots employees had conspired to deflate the footballs, which could make them easier to grip. The quarterback has denied involvement.
Goodell upheld the suspension in July 2015, prompting a lawsuit from the players union asserting that he overstepped his authority. A federal judge threw out Brady's suspension, allowing him to play the entire 2015 season.
But in a 2-1 decision on April 25, an appeals court panel restored Brady's punishment, saying Goodell had broad discretion under the league's collective bargaining agreement with its players to resolve what it called an "intramural controversy."
Wednesday's order rejected Brady's motion to have the panel or the entire appeals court reconsider the case. Brady and the players union had said letting the decision stand would undermine collectively bargained labour agreements. The NFL countered that its agreement with the union gave Goodell expansive power to discipline players.
Two former U.S. solicitors general under President George W. Bush were on opposite sides of the case, with Theodore Olson representing the union and Paul Clement representing the NFL.
Brady drew support for his appeal from many parties, including the Patriots, mediator Kenneth Feinberg, and even a group of physics and engineering professors who said deflated footballs were a normal part of the game.