Tour de France Femmes finale, Carabao Cup and Australia v Japan: live coverage for Saturday
On Saturday in Osaka Australia face Japan in a Test match as part of a weekend live coverage package that also includes the Tour de France Femmes finale and first-round Carabao Cup ties.
Australia are desperate to register back-to-back Test wins for the first time in a year after victories over the British & Irish Lions and the Springboks in August last year; the Wallabies’ target in Osaka follows their win over Italy in July that ended a six-match losing streak. Saturday’s clash will be Les Kiss’s first match in charge and pits him against Eddie Jones, who has twice been in charge of the Wallabies and will be hoping to lead Japan to their first win over Australia. Jonathan Howcroft brings live action from the match.
Football returns in England barely three weeks after the end of the summer’s World Cup, with the Scottish season already underway and Premier League sides using friendlies such as Manchester United v Paris Saint-Germain in Gothenburg and Chelsea v Milan in Jakarta for final preparations. The core domestic action begins in the Carabao Cup, with 29 first-round matches; the standout tie is at the London Stadium where freshly relegated West Ham host Portsmouth. West Ham’s first League Cup first-round tie since 2011 recalls their 2-1 home loss to Aldershot that year, and Pompey have progressed from two of the three prior major cup competition ties between the clubs. Scott Murray will helm the rolling blog with transfer updates and breaking news.
After Friday’s summit climax at Mont Ventoux, where Demi Vollering and Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney were expected to make moves on Marlen Reusser, Saturday’s stage is the longest of this year’s race at 171.9km. The route starts in Sisteron and follows the Route Napoléon for 49km before turning west along the River Var, with climbs of Col des Robines and Col de Toutes Aures and a fast descent toward the Côte d’Azur. Riders then face two further ascents, the Côte de Colomars and the Côte de la Ginestière, with the stage finishing on Nice’s Promenade des Anglais; Tom Bassam will run a rolling liveblog for stage eight.
The Tour de France Femmes concludes with a 99.2km circuit around Nice as the final stage, the last chance for riders to alter the overall classification if it has not already been decided on Saturday. A severe high-temperature warning over the region means blazing heat in the low 30Cs will be an added challenge for competitors. At last year’s finish in Châtel Les Portes du Soleil, Olympic champion Pauline Ferrand-Prévot became the first French rider in 36 years to win the Tour de France Femmes; join Luke McLaughlin for the grand finale.