By JOSEPH WILSON (Associated Press)

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Two-time defending Tour de France champion Jonas Vingegaard remained hospitalized in Spain a day after he broke his collarbone and several ribs in a bad crash with other top riders during the Tour of Basque Country.

The Danish rider’s Visma-Lease A Bike team said Friday that further tests revealed the Vingegaard also suffered a collapsed lung and a pulmonary contusion. The team said that cycling’s leading star was “stable and had a good night” but remains in a hospital in the northern Spanish city of Vitoria.

The accident comes less than three months before the start of the Tour on June 29 when Vingegaard is scheduled to to again face off against top rival Tadej Pogačar. That highly anticipated rematch is now in doubt.

Vingegaard was hardly moving as he was put in an ambulance wearing an oxygen mask and neck brace after the crash occurred on Thursday with less than 30 kilometers (18.6 miles) left in the race’s fourth stage.

The pileup also took out cycling stars Primoz Roglič and Remco Evenepoel.

Evenepoel broke a collarbone and his right shoulder blade and was set to undergo surgery when he returns to Belgium on Friday, his Soudal Quick-Step team said.

The two-time world champion said in a post on social media that “obviously my plans for the short future will change but I hope and think that my long-term goals will not change.”

The 24-year-old Evenepoel is scheduled to make his Tour debut this summer before he participates in both the time trial and road race events at the Summer Olympics.

The accident happened as riders were making what looked to be a conventional right-hand turn going downhill when one rider’s front tire appeared to slip out and send other cyclists off the road. There were some large rocks and trees in the area, though it wasn’t clear if any of the riders hit them. There was also a concrete drainage ditch on the edge of the curve.

Race director Julián Eraso said that the accident was a surprise since the race organizers considered the curve to be “easy” to handle.

“You never know where an accident can occur,” Eraso told Spanish radio Cadena SER. “This year the roads were good, wide, easy roads. That curve to the right was easy … (and) there was an indication a few meters before to let riders prepare for it.”

Roglic, a three-time Spanish Vuelta winner, emerged with just scratches, according to his BORA-hansgrohe team, but he did have to abandon the race he was leading.

Vingegaard was trying to defend the title he won last year at the six-day Tour of Basque Country. The race ends Saturday.

___

AP sports: https://apnews.com/sports

Millions and millions of skywatchers, including yours truly have waited a long time for this! This Monday, April 8, much of North America and the United States will see at least a partial eclipse as the moon crosses in front of the sun. There’ll be a total eclipse along a nearly 125-wide path that’ll reach central Mexico in the late morning, cross into Texas in the early afternoon, and then head northeast into the Ohio River Valley, upstate New York, Quebec, Canada, and New England, finally exiting the continent through the Canadian Maritimes in the late afternoon.

What sets this eclipse apart is its unique combination of a wide totality path and an extended totality time. The path of totality, where the moon completely covers the sun, spans nearly 125 miles and will be visible for an impressive duration. In the U.S., the totality time ranges from over four minutes in Texas to over three minutes in Maine. This is due to the moon in its orbit being near its closest monthly approach to the Earth at the same time this eclipse is happening.   This makes the moon’s disk appear larger in the sky than average, allowing it to cover the sun longer than usual.

(Mike Lynch)

In the Twin Cities we’ll see a deep partial eclipse that begins at 12:49 in the afternoon. At 2:02 at the mid-eclipse, almost 80% of the sun is covered. It will get noticeably darker. The eclipse ends at 3:14. Even with a nearly 80% partial eclipse, it’s still a far cry from the grand show of totality. The great news is that the closest the path of totality comes to Minnesota and Wisconsin is less than a day’s drive away in extreme southern Illinois and southeastern Missouri. If you’re hesitating about making the trip, remember that the next eclipse across such a large part of North America won’t happen again until 2045!

I hope to see it in Texas on April 8, but I’m being very flexible with my travel plans. It’s not too late to make your own travel plans, although forget about finding lodging in the band of totality. Just about every place has been booked for a long time. I advise driving somewhere along the edge of the totality band and staying there Sunday night. Then, very early on Monday, decide where there’s the best chance of clear skies and head that way into the totality band, as close to the middle of it as possible. Believe me, you’ll have lots of company. It also doesn’t matter if you’re in the city or countryside. Totality is excellent anywhere. Finding the right words to express the entire experience is pretty much impossible. It’s an absolutely stunning experience. As with any solar eclipse, do not stare at the sun without special approved eclipse glasses. You could damage your eye permanently. The only exception to this is during the few  moments of totality

Total eclipses of the sun occur when the moon briefly covers the face of the sun in its monthly orbit around Earth. They occur about twice a year on average somewhere around the world when the moon is precisely in a line between the sun and a narrow swath on Earth. Since both the disks of the sun and moon disks are about the same size in the sky, this is a spectacular and rare show. On average, any one spot of the Earth experiences one every three or four centuries. The last time we saw a total solar eclipse in the Twin Cities was in 1954. I was born two years too late for that one.

Photographing a total or partial eclipse can be a lot of fun, but you must protect your eyes and camera. There’s a lot of great information on the internet on how to do this. Personally, though, I’m not all that interested in photographing the eclipse. There’s going to be a plethora of photos being taken by folks much more skilled than me and most of you. I can tell you from experience that I believe it’s most rewarding to witness it just with your protected, God-given eyes. Keep those eclipse glasses on! Also never, never, never view the partial eclipse with binoculars and telescopes, even if you’re wearing eclipse glasses. Blindness can set in almost immediately!

Make sure, though, don’t spend the entire time staring at the sun through your eclipse glasses, especially if you’re in the band of totality. Turn away from the sun and observe the landscape around you. Watch the diminishing daylight and changing sky color, avoiding the sun, of course. If you’re lucky to be in the totality band you may actually see the moon’s shadow migrating across the landscape. There’s no way to photograph that. You just have to see it!  You’ll also feel the temperature dropping. With your solar eclipse glasses on, make sure you witness the very last bit of the sun’s disk being covered, producing what’s called the diamond ring effect as the sun’s light sneaks through mountain passes at the edge of the moon’s disk.

Only during totality is it safe to take off eclipse glasses and view with binoculars and telescopes. It’ll blow your mind! You may easily see flares and prominences churning and emanating from the sun’s violent surface. The sun’s corona and outer atmosphere will also be clearly visible. The most important thing to remember is to set a stopwatch with an alarm and STOP your telescope or binocular viewing at least 30 seconds before totality ends and put your eclipse glasses on again. You never want to view even a tiny sliver of the sun’s surface with a telescope or binoculars except during totality. You could easily damage your eyes or worse! Safety first!  Also, take a few seconds here and there to check out the sky during totality. Bright stars and planets pop out, and the skies take on a weird twilight color all along the horizon.

(Mike Lynch)

If you can’t get hold of eclipse glasses, all is not lost. You can also use the projection method to keep up with the partial eclipse. Get a piece of white cardboard and punch a pencil-diameter hole in the center of it. Hole that piece with the hole in it over another piece of stiff white cardboard with your back to the sun and hold the pencil hole piece back toward the sun. Use the shadow of the cardboard to aim it over the blank cardboard. You should be able to see an image of the partially eclipsed sun on the black sheet with absolutely no danger. It really works!

Instead of a piece of cardboard with a hole in it, you can also use a cooking spoon with holes in it and see multiple images of solar eclipses. In fact, leaves on trees can have the same effect, as the space between them can produce many images of the partial eclipse on the ground or the side of a house or other buildings. It’s wild!

Wherever you end up watching the eclipse, pray for clear enough skies. Again, the next extensive total eclipse in the U.S. won’t be until 2045!

Mike Lynch is an amateur astronomer and retired broadcast meteorologist for WCCO Radio in Minneapolis/St. Paul. He is the author of “Stars: a Month by Month Tour of the Constellations,” published by Adventure Publications and available at bookstores and adventurepublications.net. Mike is available for private star parties. You can contact him at mikewlynch@comcast.net.

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If the visitors locker room at Xcel Energy Center looks spotless after the Colorado Avalanche leave town, that just means these Minnesota Wild division rivals cleaned up there — and on the ice.

On Thursday, Jonathan Drouin scored a pair of goals for Colorado as the Avalanche clinched their season series with the Wild, winning 5-2 in their final head-to-head meeting of 2023-24.

Minnesota got goals from Vinni Lettieri and Declan Chisholm but not enough of anything else, falling to 36-30-9 and a step closer to mathematical elimination from the playoffs.

“I thought our guys played hard and battled back and the game was right in the balance. Again, we had opportunities to probably increase the lead, tie, increase the lead, we weren’t able to do that,” said Wild coach John Hynes. “But it wasn’t from a lack of opportunities or lack of effort. I don’t want to say lack of effort. I don’t think we really ever have a lack of effort.”

The loss came despite 31 saves from Filip Gustavsson and a quartet of Avalanche penalties in the second period that gave the Wild power play some exciting opportunities.

The Avalanche (48-22-6), who have clinched a playoff spot and are battling for home ice, got 44 saves from Justus Annunen and won for the second time in their past three games.

“They’re a big rival of ours,” Avalanche coach Jared Bednar admitted. “I think there’s some hatred between the fans, for sure, and I think the guys understand that. We were able to do a nice job against them this year, which is good. We’ll take it.”

Colorado took an early lead courtesy of a shot from the point and a rebound produced when Gustavsson tried and failed to glove the puck. That allowed Artturi Lehkonen’s putback, but Minnesota had an answer before the first period was halfway done.

Lettieri posted his second goal in as many games, catching a pass from Mason Shaw, who was below the goal line, and ripping a rising shot from the right circle that caught the upper left corner of the net.

The cheers turned to boos a few minutes later, as Kirill Kaprizov went to the penalty box for tripping, and Colorado needed eight seconds of man advantage to retake the lead.

Trailing 3-1 near the midway point of the game, Minnesota’s extended power play made it a one-goal game again when Chisholm’s long-range shot from the blue line got through a crowd in front of Annunen.

“Power play’s been doing a lot of good things lately, just pucks haven’t been going in, so it was nice to see that one go in,” said Chisholm after his second goal of the season. Beyond that, he admitted that Colorado was maybe more than the Wild could handle. “They just don’t stop. They’re all very good skaters and they’re just consistent on the forecheck. They’re coming and they don’t stop. So any turnover is going to be a pretty good chance and they’re going hard to the net.”

After Minnesota made an early push in the third period, Nathan MacKinnon’s team-leading 48th goal of the season created some distance, and Mikko Rantanen’s empty-net goal with 88 seconds left triggered a de facto evacuation of the building.

While Hynes thought the Avalanche goalie was the difference-maker, Colorado’s coach was disappointed with some of what he saw in his net.

“I thought he had a slow start,” Bednar said. “I didn’t like the first goal, I didn’t love the second goal even though it was power play at the end of it. He got caught looking the wrong way, crouching down. Then from that point on I thought he was exceptional.”

The Wild fell to 8-12-3 versus Central Division foes. And with their playoff hopes dwindling, first-year coach Hynes said there is much to learn about his team in the way they face the next two weeks before the regular-season finale.

“We have to make sure we continue to play. You want to win games. That’s the NHL. That’s the objective of it, and it doesn’t change,” Hynes said. “Lots of times the true colors come out to me. When things are going well, everything’s good. But when you’re in the foxhole together and the bullets are flying and you gotta pull out of adversity and you gotta band together, especially for me coming in now, seeing now we’re in an adverse situation, what’s our response going to be as a team. I think these are the times that it does test your culture.”

The Wild will host Winnipeg on Saturday. The Jets clinched a playoff spot with a home win versus Calgary on Thursday evening.

Briefly

The Wild were without defenseman Zach Bogosian, who was scratched with an undisclosed injury. It was the eighth game he has missed due to injury this season. … Colorado forward Brandon Duhaime got a nice ovation from the audience when he was recognized during the first media timeout. Duhaime played nearly 200 games for the Wild before a trade to Colorado last month.

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Four Nashville pitchers held the St. Paul Saints to four hits over 10 innings, and the Sounds plated the winning run in the 10th for a 4-3 win Thursday at First Horizon Park in Nashville, Tenn.

DaShawn Keirsey Jr. had two hits for the Saints (3-2), and Jair Camargo also had two hits, including a 428-foot home run, and two RBIs.

In the bottom of the 10th, Nashville loaded the bases with no outs against Scott Blewett via the placed runner, an intentional walk and a bunt single by Yonny Hernandez. Nick Kahle then drilled the winning hit off the base of the wall in right field.

Randy Dobnak started for the Saints and allowed one run on three hits over 3 2/3 innings.

Evan McKendry pitched six solid innings for the Sounds, allowing two runs on four hits. Enoli Paredes pitched the final two innings, walking one and striking out three.

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