The 50th Super Bowl goes to San Francisco Bay Area

BOSTON (AP) — The NFL will celebrate its 50th Super Bowl in northern California, where its newest, most high-tech venue is being built.

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The Gruppetto: 24 hours at the Giro D'Italia | James Callow

Movistar light up the Giro | Slowest man pulls a fast one | Aggravation for AG2R

Welcome to the latest edition of the Gruppetto, your daily blogpost on the Giro d'Italia, reflecting on the previous stages and looking ahead to stage 17. Do get involved below the line, or email me at james.callow@guardian.co.uk. You can find all the Gruppettos in one place, right here.

Yesterday once more

Beñat Intxausti burst for the line with 400m to go to claim victory on stage 16 of the Giro d'Italia as the general classification leaders held station behind. The Spanish Movistar rider drew clear of Astana's Tanel Kangert and Lampre-Merida's Przemyslaw Niemiec down the final stretch after the trio had made their move with around 3km left.

A little earlier, Kangert's team-mate and the overall leader Vincenzo Nibali briefly looked interested in making a break for it himself as he rode towards the front on the final descent a little over 13km from the finish. But as they came into the town of Ivrea for the second time on this 238km stage, a series of attacks stretched out at the front and Nibali was happy to come home around 14sec behind the leaders.

BMC's Cadel Evans and Team Sky's Rigoberto Urán were with him as there was no change at the front end of the general classification battle. However, Mauro Santambrogio, who won Saturday's snowy stage 14 to move up to fourth in the GC standings, suffered a bad day as he finished 2:23 down, losing 2:10 on Nibali.

Good day

Movistar This has been a fantastic Giro for the Spanish team, whose big star, Alejandro Valverde, is focussing on the Tour de France and the Vuelta a España, but others have stepped up in his absence.

In all Movistar has enjoyed a day in pink with Inxtausti, won a time trial with Alex Dowsett and on Sunday they lit up the Galibier through Giovanni Visconti.

Tuesday's win for Inxtausti was just reward the Basque whose stud earrings belie a pleasing throwback of a rider. In Italy he has shown his abilities as a puncheur, a climber and would have been a contender for the overall classification had he not proved so inept at time trialling.

But Inxtausti was just one component in a team which has competed on all fronts and done as much as any other to animate this year's Giro.

Bad day

Mauro Santambrogio The Italian was in fourth place overall and had harboured hopes of a bidding for a podium place when the race reaches the Dolomites later this week.

But he found the pace on the lead-up to the stage 16's final climb to hot to handle, and lost contact with the Nibali group. He trailed in two minutes off the maglia rosa and dropped down to sixth, over two minutes of Urán in third place.

Musings on big pink

• No more laughing at the back

The Gruppetto takes its name from the bunch of riders who trail in last with the peloton long having had its finish-line can of Fanta. The stragglers are also referred to as the laughing group, and on Tuesday it lost arguably its most jocund member.

Mattia Gavazzi had 'worn' the maglia negra – the black jersey – for the race's last man on general classification for the past nine stages, and looked well placed to strengthen his deficit on stage 16, only to fall foul of the commissaires.

The Italian sprinter, who makes a virtue of being slow on all but the flattest of stages, was chuckling his way to the finish line, 17:17 behind the day's winner, Intxausti, when he was disqualified for drafting behind team cars.

• Aggro for AG2R

AG2R La Mondiale are likely to skip the Critérium Du Dauphiné, which starts a week on Sunday, after Sylvain Georges failed a doping test for a second time. The French rider had tested positive for heptaminol after stage 7 of this year's Giro and was withdrawn as soon as the news broke out last Wednesday.

Georges claims he had taken the non-prescription supplement Ginkor Fort, that he had "always detested doping" and that he had been "stupid" to not check the label. The 29-year-old faces proceedings from the French cycling federation and is likely to be banned until at least the end of the season.

But the rider's mea culpa is unlikely to do much to help his team's situation. AG2R – who have had a splendid Giro thanks to the emergence of Carlos Betancur – are members of the Movement for Credible Cycling, which asks teams to suspend themselves for eight days if they have two positives within a year.

Georges is their second rider to be suspended, after Steve Houanard tested positive for EPO last year, leaving the likable French team little option but to sit out one of their biggest home races.

Wednesday's racing

Flat, more flat, a decent lump, and then more flat. The category four climb 192km in on the stage between Caravaggio and Vicenze could ditch a few of the pure sprinters, but is unlikely to deter those with a team built around them.

Bookies' favourites

Mark Cavendish is best-priced at 4-1 with sportingbet and paddypower, which is almost generous given the parcours and the quality of riders still left in the race.

Outside bets

Elia Viviani finished second behind Cavendish on stage 2 and stage 6, and has shown some climbing ability. His Cannondale team have also shown a commitment to work for him, so 50-1 with sportinglife looks an enticing proposition.

Live coverage

• Join us on Wednesday afternoon for our rolling blog on stage 17.

• You can also visit our Giro d'Italia front, to bone up on the race schedule, tactics and check out other splendid two-wheel resources.

• Television coverage can be found on Eurosport, with nightly stage highlights on Sky Sports.

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Cavaliers Win N.B.A. Draft Lottery Again
The Cleveland Cavaliers, which won the lottery in 2003 and 2011, will have the first pick in the June 27 draft. The Orlando Magic will have the No. 2 pick.

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CNNFC stars sign on for UNICEF
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Fox Sports Top Stories RSS feed merging with Breaking News
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Golf bans anchor putting, cites 'free swing'
Golf's governing bodies on Tuesday announced that anchoring the club in making a stroke will be banned, effective Jan. 1, 2016.

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San Francisco and Houston Win Super Bowl Bids; Miami Falls From Favor - New York Times

FOXSports.com

San Francisco and Houston Win Super Bowl Bids; Miami Falls From Favor New York Times With unusual unanimity and speed, N.F.L. owners awarded the 50th Super Bowl to the San Francisco area on Tuesday and gave the 51st to Houston, shutting out Miami and sending a message to that city about the need for stadium renovations before the ... Super Bowl 50: Local leaders get ready for Bay Area's biggest party everSan Jose Mercury News South Florida dealt a Super Bowl shutoutMiamiHerald.com Bay Area, Houston get Super BowlsESPN ABC News -Houston Chronicle -San Francisco Chronicle (blog) all 296 news articles »

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Pirates 1, Astros 0
Most disappointing series win ever? Probably. But the Pirates were able to sneak out of the weekend with two wins in three games against the Astros despite scoring a mere eight runs in three games. Sunday’s game featured just one run, of course, and that came off the bat of Pedro Alvarez. He bombed a [...]

Most disappointing series win ever? Probably. But the Pirates were able to sneak out of the weekend with two wins in three games against the Astros despite scoring a mere eight runs in three games.

Sunday’s game featured just one run, of course, and that came off the bat of Pedro Alvarez. He bombed a low, opposite field line drive homer that barely made it over the short wall in left – but it counted just as much as his gigantic blast on Friday night. It was a good thing that ball found its way into the corner of the stands that juts inward, because the Bucs had just three other hits on the day. Their offensive output against a very poor pitching team for the entire weekend was very disappointing. (Granted, they were without Andrew McCutchen for this game. He sat out with a sore knee but said he’ll be good to go for the next game on Tuesday.)

On the other hand, Jeff Locke led a stellar effort on the mound for the Bucs.  Locke matched his best start of the year by going seven scoreless innings while allowing just three hits and two walks. It’s the Astros, but that’s still a wonderful outing. Jeff continues to be surprisingly awesome, which has been huge for the Bucs.

Mark Melancon bounced back from his Saturday hiccup with a perfect eighth, and Jason Grilli followed with a perfect ninth. Ho hum. The Bucs didn’t play great ball this weekend, but they pitched well and managed to win two out of three. Good enough, but they’ll need to get the bats going soon.

Pirates 1, Astros 0 / Box / 2013 Record: 26-18 / Next: Tuesday, vs. Cubs, 7:05

Source: FanGraphs

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