SPORTS ITEMS

Alaphilippe keeps France celebrating with Tour stage win

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LE GRAND-BORNAND, France - France has a new cycling star.

Two days after the country's soccer players won the World Cup, Julian Alaphilippe became the first French winner of a stage at this year's Tour de France on Tuesday.

Fueled by previous disappointments and thoughts of his ill father watching on TV, Alaphilippe timed his break perfectly and powered to victory on the first day in the mountains, crossing the line alone, and finishing well ahead of his rivals for his first Tour win.

"I imagined winning it because it was a huge objective for me, but to win it like that, all alone ...," Alaphilippe said.

"I don't know how many kilometers I was alone - phew, it was a bit risky but I tried to up the pace and I really profited."

He finished 1 minute, 34 seconds ahead of Jon Izagirre Insausti, 1:40 ahead of Rein Taaramae, and 1:44 in front of overall leader Greg Van Avermaet.

CHURCHES CHALLENGE STILL TAKING REGISTRATION

Registration is being taken for the 19th annual Churches Challenge Golf Tournament and Praise Rally on Aug. 24-25.

The praise rally will be held at Alice Drive Baptist Church, while the tournament will be held at Sunset Country Club.

On Friday, Aug. 24, the players, their families and event sponsors will gather for fellowship, devotion, praise music and food at 5:30 p.m. at Alice Drive Baptist Church located at 1305 Loring Mill Road. A barbecue dinner with all the trimmings will be catered by Shoney's.

On Saturday, Aug. 25, at Sunset, there will be a morning flight and an afternoon flight for the golfers. Sign in for the for the morning flight is 7 a.m. with play set to begin at approximately 8 a.m. The afternoon flight will begin sign in at 11 a.m. and is scheduled for a 1 p.m. tee time.

The cost is $45 per golfer and includes the praise dinner on Friday as well as lunch and beverages on Saturday.

The CGA encourages female golfers and young golfers to participate in the event as well.

Registration forms can be mailed to CGA, 1285 Clara Louise Kellogg Drive, Sumter, SC 29153 or can be brought to the office at Dillon Park, next to Crystal Lakes Golf Course.

For more information, call (803) 773-2171.

Bell, Steelers fail to reach CONTRACT deaL

PITTSBURGH - Le'Veon Bell's next season with the Pittsburgh Steelers will almost certainly be his last.

The Pro Bowl running back and the defending AFC North champions failed to reach an agreement on a new contract by Monday's deadline, meaning he will play under the franchise tag for a second straight year and hit the open market next spring.

Bell tweeted that he "both sides worked extremely hard" to try and find common ground but ultimately could not.