Also in this sports roundup:

In Italy, Inter Milan won the 2026 Serie A title. In rugby, Union Bordeaux-Bègles will defend their European title against Leinster. In tennis, Jannik Sinner won the Madrid Masters 1000. In F1, Kimi Antonelli secured a hat-trick of wins. In the NBA, the Pistons knocked the Magic out of the competition.

Teenage super-talent Paul Seixas will make his Tour de France debut this July, his team confirmed on Monday.

Speculation has swirled for months over whether the 19-year-old Frenchman would line up in Barcelona this summer after a series of hugely impressive results, or whether his Decathlon CMA CGM squad would protect him from the weight of expectation – particularly from the French press as the home favourite – and the gruelling physical challenge of riding the Tour, the most demanding of the three Grand Tours, at such a young age.

Seixas is only in his first full season as a professional rider and has never ridden a Grand Tour. But he has made waves with some remarkable performances, winning the Itzulia Basque Country stage race in April and La Fleche Wallonne, as well as finishing second – only behind Tadej Pogacar – at Strade Bianche and Liege-Bastogne-Liege.

His Basque Country triumph, when he claimed all four jerseys and won three stages, made him the first Frenchman to win a WorldTour-level stage race since Christophe Moreau won the 2007 Criterium du Dauphine.

Those results, coupled with the maturity of his performances – particularly his ability and willingness to compete with Pogacar – mean he is already being hyped as the successor to Bernard Hinault, the last Frenchman to win the Tour de France, in 1985.

Decathlon had previously indicated his summer programme would be re-assessed after the Ardennes Classics, with his excellent run of results there making a Tour start all the more likely.

The team released a video of Seixas sharing the news of his plan to ride the Tour with his grandparents, with the caption, “J’ai quelque chose à vous annoncer… I have something to tell you.”

The teenager from Lyon has previously said his biggest dream is to win the Tour de France. The race starts in Barcelona on 4 July and finishes in Paris on 26 July this year.

Defending champion Pogacar lines up as the undisputed favourite after another stellar spring campaign, with his main rival Jonas Vingegaard and Remco Evenepoel expected to challenge.

After Seixas’ fine start to the season Decathlon will have reason to hope for a podium finish and stage wins for the teenager, while from a more commercial perspective his participation will drive publicity for the French-based team.

Italian Andrea Pavan said he is “optimistic” about a return to playing after he fell down an open lift shaft in February.

The incident occurred before the South African Open at Pavan’s private accommodation near Stellenbosch Golf Club when the lift doors opened but there was no lift car in the shaft, causing him to drop three storeys down.

The 36-year-old was taken to a local hospital with severe shoulder damage and fractures to several vertebrae in his back, and had major surgery.

“It’s hard to say a precise goal, there’s more like steps,” said Pavan.

“Around three months we’ll see how well the bone has healed. Around six months it’s about where complete bone healing happens and we’ll see how the joint is moving by then.

“It depends on if there are other tissues that were damaged if I need a second surgery. And there’s the possibility of necrosis when the blood flow is not sufficient for the bones. There is that risk, but so far it seems like things are positive enough.

“The shoulder is a very demanding joint. Hopefully it’s a little less than a year that I can play with a full swing but it’s just so new and such a big injury there are just a lot of unknowns. But I’m hopeful and the only thing I can do is to try and improve and take it day by day.”

On the day of the incident, Pavan had been preparing to drive to the Stellenbosch course for breakfast and an afternoon pro-am tee, when he returned to his apartment to retrieve a locker key that had been left there.

Speaking to the Naga Munchetty programme on BBC Radio 5 Live, he said: “I walked back towards the elevator, I opened the door – one of those doors that get into the apartment straight away – and by the time I realised the lift wasn’t there I’d already taken a step.

“The next thing I know I’m just at the bottom of the elevator, luckily not unconscious but in a lot of pain and screaming for help.

“Somebody heard and I was somehow able to get my phone out and call my caddie, who was in the car. From then on it was just trying to survive the pain and waiting for the ambulance and all the firefighters who got me out.”

The two-time DP World Tour winner spent seven days in hospital in South Africa, having surgery on a complete fracture of his shoulder, and has now returned to his home in Texas.

Pavan paid tribute to the “amazing” support from the golfing world during his time in hospital.

“The amount of people who came to the hospital to visit me when the tournament was happening was truly overwhelming,” he said.

“There were a lot of players – friends of mine – who actually stayed up to 2am and waited for me to get out of surgery and they were playing in the tournament the next day, Matteo Manassero, Manuel Oliveira and others.

“I was just truly surprised and it was comforting and overwhelming to feel you were not alone going through this.”

Jose Benavidez Sr, the father and trainer of David Benavidez, has insisted there is only one fighter who would offer his son a considerable challenge.

The 29-year-old became a three-division world champion against Gilberto Ramirez, dethroning his former sparring partner with a sixth-round stoppage at Las Vegas’ T-Mobile Arena.

Beforehand, many felt their encounter was likely to go the distance, especially with Benavidez moving up from 175lbs and Ramirez having never previously been dropped.

As it happened, though, Ramirez was forced to suffer two knockdowns – and a nasty swelling on his right eye – before being relieved of his WBO and WBA titles.

Benavidez, meanwhile, is now the unified cruiserweight champion and has the option to move back down to light-heavyweight, where he holds the WBC world title.

In that division, he would likely be targeting an undisputed showdown with Dmitry Bivol, but ‘The Mexican Monster’ could alternatively make an audacious move up to heavyweight.

Benavidez has previously discussed a potential fight in the land of the giants, which his father and coach believes is the only way he will be properly tested.

Speaking with Fight Hub TV, Jose named unified heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk as perhaps the only man who could present his son with some semblance of a challenge.

“Right now, I’m going to be honest with you: I don’t see any danger for David Benavidez at 175[lbs] and at cruiserweight.

“Nobody can beat David, this is ‘The Monster’ era. At the end of the day, he’s beating everybody in every division, so [he] might as well go to f***ing heavyweight.

“I think the biggest challenge would be Usyk. That’s something like out of this world. That’s the only guy that I think could [challenge him], that would be crazy, that would be another big challenge because he [Usyk] is the pound-for-pound best in my opinion.”

While a clash between Usyk and Benavidez would, indeed, be quite extraordinary, it is difficult to imagine the Ukrainian including Benavidez in his three-fight plan.

French teenage prodigy Paul Seixas announced on Monday that he will ride the Tour de France in July for the first time, raising hopes of a first home winner in more than four decades.

No Frenchman has won the Tour since Bernard Hinault did so for a record-equalling fifth time in 1985.

The 19-year-old Seixas has been in stunning form this season, winning seven races and pushing all-time great Tadej Pogacar close in the Liege-Bastogne-Liege Monument one-day classic a week ago.

He has ridden two week-long stage races and four one-day classics this season, and has not finished below second.

Read moreFrench teenager Seixas becomes youngest Fleche Wallonne winner

He will be the youngest rider to start a Tour in 89 years when the Grand Boucle begins in Barcelona on July 4.

In a video posted to social media by Seixas’s Decathlon CMA CGM team, he is shown visiting his grandparents in the eastern Haut-Savoie region near his home in Lyon.

“I’ve come here to announce to you something special, I have a race in July,” he tells his grandparents, before they guess that he is talking about the Tour.

Seixas’s potential participation in the sport’s most prestigious race has been the subject of much speculation, especially since he has demonstrated that he is already one of the best riders in the world.

Many experts believe it is too soon for him to tackle the 3,333 kilometer (2,069 mile) long three-week race, which includes eight mountain stages, including five summit finishes.

It will be his first grand tour and the first time he has tackled a race longer than eight days.

Read moreFrench teen star Seixas becomes youngest ever winner of Basque Tour

But he has excelled in every other challenge put before him this season.

“If he’s not ready, then who is ready?” his Belgian team-mate Oliver Naesen told Cyclingnews last month.

“He’s 100 percent ready to go to the Tour.”

But Marc Madiot, the sporting director of rival French team Groupama-FDJ United believes it would be unwise for the young star to compete so soon.

“We underestimate what the Tour de France is,” he told RMC radio station on Sunday.

“When you ride the Tour de France… you enter into a washing machine which wears you down, which devours you day after day,” he added.

And in four-time winner Pogacar, Seixas will be up against “someone who destroys his rivals mentally one after another, even his own team-mates.”

(FRANCE 24 with AFP) 

The Minnesota Vikings spent big during the free agency periods of 2024 and 2025, and because they scaled back in 2026, resetting their salary cap, they might be for sale, or so goes the theory from Pioneer Press‘s Charley Walters.

The Wilfs have spent aggressively, which makes the sale speculation tougher to buy.

Walters delivered the spicy take inside his weekly article, and the theory landed big time in front of shocked eyeballs, as nobody anywhere thinks or thought that the franchise is for sale.

Minnesota’s Spending Habits Tell a Different Story

Do you perceive the Vikings as for sale?

Walters: The Vikings Could Be For Sale

Walters wasn’t shy about unloading his theory, writing, “It’s beginning to look as if Vikings ownership now could be mirroring Twins ownership, which has sought to sell its team. Figuring they were championship worthy, the Vikings a year ago spent more money on player payroll in the offseason ($350 million) than any of the NFL’s other 31 teams.”

“This offseason, the Vikings have spent just $226 million, second lowest in the league. It appears Vikings owners Mark and Zygi Wilf have decided on a significant payroll slash this year. The Vikings won’t admit it, but this sure looks like a rebuilding year. This is the 21st year the Wilfs have owned the Vikings. Until this year, they have made a commendable attempt at winning the Lombardi Trophy.”

Regarding the pursuit of a Lombardi Trophy in 2026, it is unclear why Walters thinks the Vikings have ruled themselves out. They boasted a Top 3 defense last year and signed Kyler Murray in March. Those components should suggest playoff contendership.

Walters continued, “Meanwhile, the Twins’ Pohlad ownership isn’t unlike what Red McCombs did with the Vikings in 2005 before selling to the Wilfs. McCombs, who bought the Vikings for $246 million in 1998, cut player and coaching staff payroll to a bare minimum and waited until he got his price ($600 million) from the Wilfs.”

“If the Wilfs, who curiously still haven’t named a permanent general manager since firing Kwesi Adofo-Mensah last January, were to sell the Vikings today, they could get between $8 billion and $9 billion.”

A Misinterpretation of Free Agency Spending

Walters equated the Vikings’ small-ish free-agent spending as evidence that ownership is chomping at the bit to sell. The first part is true; the second part is not.

In 2024, Minnesota used $167 million on new contracts. That ranked fourth-most in the NFL. In 2025, Minnesota used $270 million on new contracts. That ranked second-most in the NFL. A franchise cannot continually rank near the top of free agency spending; it’s impossible. It’s why there’s a salary cap.

When a club opts to spend freely for a year or two, it must scale back soon after. The scaleback is happening in real time right now. In fact, if Minnesota wants to spend next year or in 2028 free agency, it can now do so — because it held off on spending future years’ money in 2026.

Teams spend big, then they reset. Then, they do it again. The Vikings do it consistently. In fact, fans are probably looking at another year of quiet spending in 2027.

No Shred of Evidence beyond the Rumor Article

For those who want to see the Vikings led by new owners, you’re going to be waiting for a while.

Star Tribune‘s Ben Goessling tweeted Sunday, “A source close to the Wilfs said there’s ‘zero truth’ to the notion the Vikings owners are thinking about selling the team. They’ve long talked about the team staying in the family for multiple generations, and both Mark and Zygi Wilf’s kids have taken on larger roles with the team in recent years.”

The Athletic‘s Alec Lewis added, “You can only spend millions in cash over cap for so long without premium results. That’s the extent of this. And just for the record: The Wilfs aren’t selling the Vikings. Zero truth to that whatsoever. Source close to ownership made that abundantly clear.”

In the end, Walters’s take about the owners’ would-be sale of a team boiled down to one man’s opinion — a hot take.

Mike Florio’s Take

NBC Sports‘ Mike Florio interpreted Walters’s theory as if it were credible, noting, “While the ever-inflating values of NFL franchises could tempt more than a few current owners to take $10 billion or more and run, there’s not enough there to justify a conclusion that this is anything other than a cap correction after the Vikings overplayed their hand in 2025, due primarily to the very bad decision(s) made about the most important position on the team.”

“While no one will objectively conclude that the Minnesota roster screams out ‘Super Bowl contender’ for 2026, the spending decisions don’t immediately point to a potential sale of the team. Still, perception is reality. With the hypothesis morphing into the beginnings of a theory, it could be time for the Wilfs to make the case publicly that they aren’t getting ready to pound a ‘For Sale’ sign in the front yard.”

Walters’s thesis is pretty straightforward: the Vikings could be for sale because they rolled back the spending this offseason. The only problem with that hypothesis? It’s standard operating procedure to reduce spending after Top 4 spending sprees in consecutive offseasons.

If anything, onlookers should have expected and predicted a “boring” free agency.

In Tuesday’s $150,000 Brierly Steeplechase, the opening day feature of the Warrnambool May Racing Carnival, Stern Idol will attempt to exceed his own previous achievement in the race.

The import under Ciaron Maher’s care shoulders 75kg for the 3450m journey.

Two years ago, the nine-year-old set the metric weight record by winning with 73kg, eclipsing Some Are Bent’s 71kg from 2010, and marking the highest since Deckard’s 75.5kg (11 stone 12 ounces) success in 1939.

Stern Idol faces his toughest weight assignment to date, 1kg beyond that in last year’s Grand National Steeplechase where he ran fourth; trainer Maher acknowledges the hurdle but backs his horse strongly.

He comes off a 25-length demolition under 72kg in Terang’s Spencer Memorial Steeplechase (3850m) on April 19.

“I suppose it can stop him, he’s got 10 kilos on most on the field, but he’s big though,” he said.

“With the weight, it’ll be a test.

“He was a good win the other day, he’s come through it well and he seems to get around there pretty well.”

Stern Idol, the $2.10 Brierly Steeplechase favourite, meets Leaderboard receiving 6kg, with only Mark Walker’s The Mighty Spar (67.5kg) also over 65kg.

At 65kg sit $3.20 elect Hit The Road Jack and Instigator, who trailed Stern Idol by a long neck when second in the 2024 Brierly Steeplechase.

The Brierly Steeplechase constitutes Stern Idol’s lone start at the Warrnambool Carnival, whereas Leaderboard, The Mighty Spar, Castrofrancaru, Hit The Road Jack and Instigator might follow up Thursday in the $350,000 Grand Annual Steeplechase, which had 11 declarations Monday.

Seeking repeat glory in the 5500m event is star Duke Of Bedford.

The $300,000 Warrnambool Cup on Thursday’s program over 2350m Listed sees recent Group 2 Chairman’s Quality (2600m) winner Newlook at the forefront.

Discover racing odds at the betting sites ahead of Stern Idol’s Brierly Steeplechase bid.