Cycling: Denis Lynch is the new leader of the Junior Tour, with his Ireland team-mate Willie Curtin in second place seven seconds behind, writes Jim McArdle.

Stage two, held last evening over a circuit of 48 miles that finished behind Dublin Airport, was won by David Heavens of the England team with Curtin fourth and Lynch sixth.

The leaders had an advantage of a minute and 30 seconds with eight miles to go but that was reduced to just 23 seconds at the line. Although Tosh Lavery lost his lead he is still sixth at 18 seconds. Heavens was penalised 40 seconds for being late at the start of Tuesday's opening time trial and that cost him dearly.

Junior Tour - Stage Two (48 miles) - 1, D Heavens (England) 1:59:08; 2, J Van Veldhoven (Holland); 3, M Dennehy (Kanturk) all same time; 4, W Curtin (Ireland) at 2 secs; 5, R Kooymans (Holland); 6, Denis Lynch (Ireland) all same time. Over- all: 1, Lynch 2:02:33; 2, Curtin at 7 secs; 3, Veldhoeven 8; 4, Kooymans 9; 5, Dennehy 15; 6, T Lavery (Leinster) 18.

Athletics: World 100 metres champion Maurice Greene chased and caught on Tuesday a thief who had stolen a bag belonging to his US team-mate Larry Wade.

The thief grabbed the American hurdler's bag shortly after the athletes had arrived in Seville for the seventh world athletics championships. Greene set off in chase, caught the robber and retrieved the bag.

"The thief had bad luck," Greene joked. "At least it puts me in a good frame of mind for the championships."

Cycling: Italian cyclist Marco Pantani will not race in next month's Tour of Spain. Giuseppe Martinelli, Pantani's team boss at Mercatone, said yesterday that the 1998 Tour de France and Giro d'Italia winner had not mentally recovered after failing a drugs test earlier this year.