Chris Froome and Geraint Thomas were grateful to emerge with little more than bumps and bruises from a crash as Marcel Kittel won stage two of the Tour de France in Liege.

Chris Froome clawed back a late attack led by Alberto Contador to retain second place in the overall standings after stage 17 of the Vuelta a Espana yesterday.

A new blood test to detect Mycobacteria in blood has been developed by a team at the University of Nottingham led by Dr Cath Rees, an expert in microbiology in the School of Biosciences, and Dr Ben Swift from the School of Veterinary Medicine and Science.

Nicolas Roche moved up one place to 21st overall at the Vuelta A Espana after yesterday’s 12th stage of the race to Lleida, the Team Sky man not getting amongst the sprint that decided the day.

The postmortem examination of poisoned spy Alexander Litvinenko was “one of the most dangerous ever undertaken in the western world”, the public inquiry into his death has heard.

Cycling Ireland last night named a strong team for the UCI World Championships in Ponferrada, Spain in two weeks’ time.

An up-and-coming cyclist has apologised after a ‘selfie’ he took of a prone Giro d’Italia stage winner moments after a sprint finish prompted a storm of criticism.

German powerhouse Marcel Kittel proved for the second day in succession he is currently the best sprinter in the world when he stormed to victory on stage three of the Giro d’Italia in front of over 50,000 fans in Dublin’s city centre yesterday.

Dan Martin's Giro d'Italia dreams were ended on the opening stage in Belfast as he suffered a serious crash.

The days of partying are now over as Donegal’s Philip Deignan prepares for the Giro d’Italia with Team Sky.

Italian Diego Ulissi won the first stage of the Tour of Poland as Sir Bradley Wiggins made a low-key return to action with Team Sky.

Irish cyclist Nicolas Roche has moved up to sixth place in the Vuelta a Espana after finishing in the main group today today.

Great Britain were pipped to the men’s team pursuit Track Cycling World Championships title by old enemies Australia in Copenhagen today.

Team Sky was launched at a glitzy ceremony in central London today with the objective of supplying a British winner of the Tour de France within five years.

COLOMBIAN Fabio Duarte took his country’s first amateur world road race title at the U23 cycling championships in Varese, Italy, yesterday.

THE Martin Donnelly Junior Tour arrived in Carrick-on-Suir last night with no change to the overall positions.