European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - July 16, 2007, Darmstadt, Hesse                                July stars and stripes Mideast edition Page 25 Rasmussen wins climbs into Lead by Jamey Keaten the associated press France Michael Rasmussen of Denmark won the eighth stage of the tour de France on sunday to take the Overall Lead after a second Day of grueling climbs in the the Tours Best climber the past two crossed the finish line alone after the run from be Gran bornand to tines that Fea tured three category 1 climbs and an Uphill Rasmussen was clocked 49 40 seconds to earn his third tour stage iban Mayo of Spain was followed by Alejan Dro Valverde of the danish climbing Ace took the Overall race leaders yellow Jersey from German rider Linus who had won the seventh stage Rasmussen holds a 43second Lead Over Ger Demann and a Gap Over the third placed most Overall race favourites it was a bad Day for Gerdeman is Mobile the teams australian Michael Rog injured his shoulder in a crash and dropped As did British teammate Mark Cavend who had crashed twice in ear Lier Australia Stuart Ogrady of team who also crashed Sun injured his quit the race and was taken to a Hospital for riders get a rest Day monday before the last Alpine the stage 9 from the Val disere ski station to featuring the Iserman and Galbier two of the hardest ascents in the three week tour de France results Bas Michael Rasmussen finishes off his Victory in the eighth stage of the tour de France Between be grand Bromand and French stayed close to the but sex Tana who helped expected contender Alexandre i Cort him to prevent him from los Noko Urov lost time to his main i ing too much he has been Riding with pain since injuring his the team was incredible Knees in a crash during thurs Vinokurov said of his As Days tour de France sunday at France eighth stage a 1023mile High Mountain stage from be Gran bornand to tines Michael a 4 49 40 iban saunter Alejandro Caisse Christophe ag2r pre same Frank team Cadel As same Alberto discovery Denis Carlos team same Aimar Euska Leleu s lev United discovery same Juan Jose Cobo Saunier same Manuel Oscar Caisse same Juan Manuel Quick Caisse same Andreas same Alexandre As same Linus Overall standings after eight stages Michael a Linus iban Saunier Alejandro Caisse Andrey As am games off to Rocky Start in Brazil Power traffic jams cause some problems in Rio by Barry Wilner the associated press Rio de Brazil the pan american games got off to a sputtering Start saturday with baseball postponements and reports of a delay in televising one of the Premier sports of the organizers postponed two base Ball games the United states the dominican Republic and Brazil against Nicaragua after a Power outage at the new lighting problems did not affect the Panama Cuba and Benezue la Mexico games played Panama upset Cuba 43 and Venezuela and Mexico were tied 22 when darkness forced a sus pension of the it was not the Way the Brazil ians wanted to begin the biggest sporting event they have Ever particularly since they Are seeking to stage the 2014 world cup and 2016 esp Brazil reported prob lems at another new the Rio Multi sport that led to the delay of television coverage of the mens team gymnastics com petition but much of the event wound up on organizers said the delay was caused by problems with the broadcast cables inside the basketball also is scheduled for that later in the the baseball team of col lege players has not played since july 8 and was eager to get Start the postponement left them scrambling for a practice their game was rescheduled for sunday on half hour after Venezuela faces Pana that game was set to Start at 8 the United states previously scheduled game against Nicara Gua has been pushed Back to Mon we still have to play the basically whether its today or tuesday or team spokesman Niall Adler its always been kind of a Challenge throughout our three week tour to be Able to practice and the opening ceremony was accompanied by a few problems Fri Day night at the famed Maraca a but was a spectacular Security was so strict that Many fans  get to the newly renovated stadium in the ceremony began late with Many seats and hundreds of would be participants stuck in lines stretching for blocks out waiting to pass through Metal detectors and Brazil president Luiz Inacio Lula a Silva was booed every time his name was mentioned and he did not give the scheduled speech to officially open the he was hastily replaced by brazilian olympic committee president Carlos Arthur the ceremony was proceeded by issues with transportation and infrastructure at other traffic jams on the streets and difficulty buying food and finding bathrooms inside the venues prompted a group of about 100 fans to protest on we want to eat we want to Julie Justin Spring of the United states pushes off the vault in the Allaround qualifying round of the pan american games on the gymnastics Competition was one of the events disrupted by trouble with broadcast cables in the Rio Mufti sports which caused an unexpected to eat they chanted at the Rio Cen Tro Complex after the handball match Between Brazil and mexi the Concession stands Avail Able to the Public were All forcing fans to try to enter the press area and attempt to get they were denied to fix thai organizers temporarily allowed the fans through a Security checkpoint and into parts of the Media area to get food on saturday because the Public food Kiosk was closed due to what organizers called an Energy the fans were lined up 30 deep at one conces Sion later in the guards at the checkpoint stopped fans from Mountain bikers had problems practising at the Morro do out Eiro circuit Friday because of heavy rain and the Lack of Para medics to attend to them in Case of Panama medals count pan american games medals table 12 events country g s b Tot United states 5 2 1 8 Mexico 2024 dominican Republic 1113 Canada 1 0 2 3 Cuba 1 0 12 puerto Rico 1012 Colombia 1 0 0 1 Brazil 0527 Chile 0 1 12 Venezuela 0112 Al Salvador 0101 Peru 0101 Argentina 0011 Guatemala 0011 Honduras 0011