Tag Archives: pursuit

Sports

Van Aert joins forces with Van der Poel in pursuit of Tour de France yellow

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On Friday’s Tour de France stage, Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) and Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Fenix) were finally allies rather than enemies. Instead of racing against each other, slugging it out in the biggest cyclo-cross races or the spring Classics, they worked together for a common goal on stage 7, the longest day of the 2021 Tour de France.

They had shared goals: the Dutchman to extend his lead in the overall classification to keep the leader’s jersey one more day, and the Belgian keeping his time in the hope of taking yellow from Van der Poel in the Alps. Van Aert is now set to offer an alternative strategy for Jumbo-Visma after Primož Roglič continued to suffer from his crash injuries and lost any hope of overall success.

Van Aert and Van der Poel were unable to stop Matej Mohorič (Bahrain Victorious) from going clear before the final climbs and staying away to win the stage. However, they combined to chase the other attacks, worked to gain time on the peloton and sprinted for the placings, with Van der Poel finishing fourth and Van Aert eighth.

The Alpecin-Fenix rider leads his Jumbo-Visma rival by just 30 seconds, with the two Alpine stages to come at the weekend.

“If you didn’t look around you’d think it was the Ruddervoorde Superprestige rather than the Tour,” Van Aert joked after the stage.

“We’re long-time rivals and I think it will stay that way forever but today we had a few laughs out front during the stage. I enjoyed breaking out of the usual routine of the Tour and going into battle. The plan was to join the attack today, both to go for the win and for the overall standings.

“I already know Mathieu a bit, so I knew he would be on the lookout, too. It’s great that he’s racing like that. I couldn’t get away from him and so he deserves a lot of respect for keeping the yellow jersey,” he said.

“I put everything on one attack but I couldn’t get away. Then I said that we’d both benefit if we work together, we’d both stay close to the other and in the GC. Unfortunately, there was nothing we could do against Mohorič. He pushed on before the toughest climb and somehow he stayed ahead of us.”

Van Aert couldn’t resist putting the squeeze on his eternal rival in the final kilometres of the stage, once it was clear Mohorič would not be caught.

“I first let Asgreen attack because he was also a small danger for Mathieu’s yellow jersey. That forced him to ride in the final but he was still the strongest in the sprint.”

With Roglič slipping to 33rd overall, 9:11 down on Van der Poel and 5:30 down on Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates), Van Aert is now Jumbo-Visma’s ‘Plan B’.

Twenty-four-year-old Jonas Vingegaard is 11th at 5:18 and could also ride for a top-10 place in Paris.

The hope now is that Van Aert can recover from his big ride out front on the road to Le Creusot and distance Van der Poel in the Alps enough to take the yellow jersey from him, while doing enough to stop Pogačar pulling back his 3:13 deficit and snatching the race lead.

“I definitely shouldn’t give up just yet. But I’m curious how I will feel tomorrow after today’s ride. I’m guessing I’ll have bad legs,” Van Aert said with a pinch of realism. “If Pogacar is strong and aggressive, very little will be possible.”

With Roglič still licking his wounds and coming to terms that his overall chances are over, Van Aert did not want to grasp team leadership at Jumbo-Visma. That will occur naturally on the road to Le Grand Bornand on Saturday.

“It was certainly not my intention to become the team leader. We had hoped that Primoz would have recovered sufficiently but that is not the case, unfortunately,” he said. “Now we need to take a look at what we’re going to do in the rest of the Tour.”

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US

Chase: Authorities in pursuit of murder suspect in SoCal

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ONTARIO, Calif. (KABC) — A murder suspect is leading authorities on a dangerous chase across Riverside and Los Angeles counties Tuesday evening.

AIR7 HD was over the chase around 6 p.m. as the driver in a black pickup truck was going at high speeds on the 60 Freeway.

The suspect moved into the east San Gabriel Valley area and was driving over 75 mph with multiple officers behind.

Riverside County deputies and California Highway Patrol units were in pursuit.

At one point, the driver weaved dangerously past several cars on the freeway. When the pursuit transitioned onto surface streets, the suspect turned into oncoming traffic and narrowly avoided crashing.

It was unclear if any other person was inside the truck.

DEVELOPING: We will add more details to this report as they become available.

Copyright © 2021 KABC-TV. All Rights Reserved.



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Sports

Robert Williams builds case for starting role, adding new twist to Celtics’ Andre Drummond pursuit

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Opportunity knocked on the door for Robert Williams after the Celtics traded their starting center Daniel Theis at the buzzer before Thursday’s trade deadline and the third-year center answered the call with one of the best performances of his career in Friday’s win over the Milwaukee Bucks.

Normally, Williams makes his biggest impact on the offensive end of the floor with his finishing ability around the rim but he shined most in this one on the defensive end against what was the NBA’s hottest team (eight straight wins) before Friday’s impressive win by Boston. Williams was an imposing defensive presence in his first start of the season, piling up five blocks and two steals over his 27 minutes, captaining a Boston defense that had been hapless (27th in NBA) since the All-Star Break.

Milwaukee got their open 3s still but Williams provided a solid layer of projection around the rim, giving him from the weak side and altering layup attempts that forced the Bucks into some misses from point-blank range.

“Rob can impact at the rim but if you make him rotate off his guy, teams are good enough to jump pass and dump it off to the big in the dunker or they’re good enough to jump past get their eyes to the rim, and hit corners,” Brad Stevens said. “That’s how we got sprayed a few times on individual drives. So it’s nice to have guys that can block shots down there.”

Offensively, Williams didn’t shoot much but his impact was terrific as the rest of Boston’s starting five got red-hot from 3-point range. He scored nine points on 3-of-5 shooting from the field but also dished out a career-high six assists, making strong reads from the high post which created easy looks for his teammates. That vision combined with zero turnovers helped Boston reach new heights in the second half with a season-high 43 point third quarter.

“He’s got to create a great synergy with the starters as far as getting them open, and getting them the right looks and those types of things,” Stevens said. “I thought he did a great job tonight. Listen, he’s clearly our best big that’s here. It’s not a knock on Mo or Luke. He’s just ahead of both those guys. We’ll cross all those other bridges when we get there.”

For now, Williams is Boston’s starter by default with Tristan Thompson still in NBA health and safety protocols and Theis set to debut for the Bulls next week. However, the Celtics have their eyes on some big names in the buyout market including former Cavs center Andre Drummond who the team met with on Friday, according to a source.

The Celtics have a strong pitch for Drummond given the fact that they have a starting job up for grabs at center but Williams’ play against the Bucks on Friday is an interesting wrinkle on whether Drummond if the best fit for the starting five if he in fact chooses Boston over a host of other suitors (LA Lakers, LA Clippers, Brooklyn, New York). Drummond provides far more bulk than Williams down low but the young Celtic has seen few chances in his career to play big minutes. Taking that away from him for a potential rental in Drummond could be a mistake.

However, Boston signing Drummond doesn’t necessarily mean the Celtics have to start him or even give him any of Williams’ 20-25 minutes per game. Tristan Thompson remains out in NBA health and safety protocols and his return timetable is still unclear. His lackluster play over the first 40 games of the year may ultimately make him the odd man out in the center rotation if Drummond is signed since that duo would have a bit of a redundant skillset that we saw together at times last year in Cleveland when they briefly played together after the trade deadline.

No matter what happens with Drummond, Williams is making a strong case for an extended starting case for himself even though Brad Stevens wouldn’t commit to anything for the time being beyond the short-term.

“I feel like I did what I’m put out there to do,” Williams said. “I feel like I exerted a lot of energy with me and my teammates. That’s my job. That’s what it’s about.”

Whether that’s enough to earn him the job for the long haul remains to be seen but the Celtics starting five played their best game of road basketball in months on Friday night. Consistency is the next step for Williams and the rest of the roster but the case for developing Williams with the starters got stronger on Friday night, no matter who ends up in a Celtic uniform off the buyout market.

“I said from the get-go, getting in there, getting more minutes is a blessing,” Williams said. “That’s how I’m looking at it. You gotta take advantage. If you don’t take advantage of it, you’re losing.”

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World

Man killed after pursuit in stolen cruiser has lengthy criminal history

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Documents obtained by 5 Investigates show the 36-year-old who was killed by a state trooper after an armed robbery and pursuit Friday had a lengthy criminal history dating back to at least 2001.While officials have not publicly identified the suspect, 5 Investigates has learned the man was Eric Leach, who had ties to Winthrop and Brockton. Documents show Leach has faced multiple charges for assault, an arrest for theft of a motor vehicle and charges for break-ins. Nearly a decade ago, he was put on the state’s most-wanted list, after Leach fled a shooting incident where a child was wounded. He was captured a couple of weeks later.Documents show the gun accidentally fired, striking an 8-year-old girl in the leg as she played in a second-floor apartment. He pleaded guilty to several charges and spent three years in prison for that incident before being released in August 2018.He was also supposed to be on probation for three more years. Leach was fatally shot in Quincy Friday morning after the culmination of a chase in which a Rockland Police Department vehicle was stolen. Officials said he had gotten a rifle from inside the cruiser and was attempting to exit the vehicle with it when he was fatally shot by a member of a tactical team.

QUINCY, Mass. —

Documents obtained by 5 Investigates show the 36-year-old who was killed by a state trooper after an armed robbery and pursuit Friday had a lengthy criminal history dating back to at least 2001.

While officials have not publicly identified the suspect, 5 Investigates has learned the man was Eric Leach, who had ties to Winthrop and Brockton.

Documents show Leach has faced multiple charges for assault, an arrest for theft of a motor vehicle and charges for break-ins.

Nearly a decade ago, he was put on the state’s most-wanted list, after Leach fled a shooting incident where a child was wounded. He was captured a couple of weeks later.

Documents show the gun accidentally fired, striking an 8-year-old girl in the leg as she played in a second-floor apartment. He pleaded guilty to several charges and spent three years in prison for that incident before being released in August 2018.

He was also supposed to be on probation for three more years.

Leach was fatally shot in Quincy Friday morning after the culmination of a chase in which a Rockland Police Department vehicle was stolen. Officials said he had gotten a rifle from inside the cruiser and was attempting to exit the vehicle with it when he was fatally shot by a member of a tactical team.

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Science

Male lyrebirds resort to artful deception in the pursuit of procreation | Wildlife

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Male lyrebirds in the throes of sexual union will mimic the sound of a distressed mob of other birds to fool their mate and stop her from escaping, new research from Australia has found.

The remarkable discovery was made after analysing audio and video of superb lyrebirds – a species known for extravagant dance routines and an ability to imitate the calls of more than 20 other species.

Researchers found males could simultaneously reproduce both the vocal “mobbing” sounds, and the sounds of beating wings made by other bird species when they’re trying to scare off a predator.

The male lyrebirds mimicry is so accurate it not only fools the female lyrebird, but playback experiments also found other small birds were tricked into thinking there was a threat nearby.

Lyrebirds in captivity have been known to imitate other sounds, including chainsaws and car alarms.

Dr Anastasia Dalziell, a behavioural ecologist at the University of Wollongong, led the research published in the journal Current Biology.

“Male lyrebirds are capable of doing amazing things and terrible things,” she said.

The male superb lyrebird uses vocal trickery to fool females into believing there’s a threat nearby, giving them an opportunity to mate. Photograph: Alex Maisey

Dalziell first heard lyrebirds mimic the mobbing calls in 2007 and went on to study the ability in detail in two populations – one in Sherbrooke Forest in Victoria, the other in the Blue Mountains in New South Wales. These locations are 700km apart.

Along with her colleagues, she was sure the mimicking had something to do with mating but wasn’t immediately clear on why.

But other scientists pointed out a similar behaviour in other animals. Male topi antelopes use a false alarm call if females move away from their “display arenas”.

The male corn borer moth will mimic the sound of predatory bats for long enough to cause a female to freeze, giving the male time to mate.

“Lyrebirds are using the same strategy, but doing it in a really over-the-top way, like lyrebirds seem to do,” Dalziell said.

The research found male lyrebirds only reproduced the sound when they had enticed a female onto their “display area” – a small space in the forest, cleared for courtship – or when they were copulating.

These two moments, Dalziell says, are crucial to reproductive success “suggesting that mimicking a mobbing flock is a crucial sexual behaviour for males”.

She said they were further convinced when their camera footage showed female lyrebirds reacting to the mimicking calls and returning to display areas.

When the mimicking calls were analysed in detail, researchers could detect mobbing calls that sounded like eastern yellow robins, brown thornbills, and white-browed scrubwrens. Occasionally, the researchers detected alarm calls that sounded like two species of possum.

To compare the imitated mobbing chorus to a real one, Dalzielle said they had to employ their own deceptive behaviour to get local birds to reproduce the calls.

“We threw in a rubber snake,” she said.

The male lyrebirds always employed their deceptive trick if females tried to escape while mating, Dalziell said.

“Males are pulling out all the stops to get the female to mate. It’s just one of the many things males do.

“They have this beautiful dance routine and they’ll sing from dawn until dusk and so the female is getting all these other beautiful signals. We shouldn’t see the lyrebirds as terrible.

“We do have a tendency to romance about the lyrebird, but they’re animals and are capable of amazing things. But they also do things we don’t like or find troubling and problematic, just like people.”

Lyrebirds will routinely mimic other species and Dalziell said their repertoire extended beyond 20 different species.

“They only imitate local species. They do it mainly in the breeding season and it’s part of their dawn chorus – and it is very, very accurate.”

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