DUBLIN, Ireland -- Marcel Kittel sprinted to a second straight stage victory in a wet third leg of the Giro dItalia on Sunday while Michael Matthews retained the overall leaders pink jersey. Kittel looked to have left it too late on his 26th birthday after losing contact with his rivals inside the final kilometre. But the German cyclist came from behind to edge out Ben Swift on the line and deny the Briton a maiden Grand Tour stage victory. Kittel finished in four hours 28 minutes 43 seconds. Elia Viviani was third in a bunch sprint at the end of the 187-kilometre cross-border leg from Armagh to Dublin. Svein Tuft of Langley, B.C., was 74th while Victorias Ryder Hesjedal finished 96th. Tuft is in a four-way tie for fourth in the overall standings while Hesjedal is tied for 156th. Matthews -- whose Orica-GreenEdge team won Fridays opening time trial -- will lead the race back to Italy and the Australian has an eight-second advantage over Italian cyclist Alessandro Petacchi. Rain fell intermittently for most of the day and wet roads caused several crashes, including two large ones, but all the riders were able to continue. Former winner Michele Scarponi was one of the riders caught up in a large crash around 60 kilometres from the finish. Several cyclists also suffered technical problems and Swift briefly dropped off the back of the peloton when he had to change his bike with 25 kilometres to go. Maarten Tjallingii, who is still wearing the blue King of the Mountains jersey, led for most of the stage for the second day in a row. He was part of an early breakaway of five riders, along with Yonder Godoy, Miguel Angel Rubiano Chavez, Gert Dockx and Giorgio Cecchinel. They had a lead of six minutes before the peloton started reeling them in with more than 100 kilometres remaining. Their advantage briefly increased as the peloton slowed to wait for riders involved in the major crashes to catch up, but the group was back together with more than seven kilometres remaining after a brief solo escape from Cecchinel. After three wet days in Northern Ireland and Ireland, the Giro takes a rest day on Monday as it travels back to Italy. The Giro ends in Trieste on June 1. Luis Tiant Jersey . Hoefl-Rieschs exit — from the downhill course into safety nets, then airlifted from the slope by helicopter — left Anna Fenninger of Austria favourite to win her first giant crystal trophy one month after becoming an Olympic champion. David Ortiz Jersey . Brandon Morrow allowed five runs on six hits over three innings. He struck out two, walked one and hit a batter. Edwin Encarnacion had a two-out, bases loaded two-RBI double in the third inning. https://www.cheapredsox.com/1911z-josh-a-smith-jersey-red-sox.html . Ronaldo failed to connect on an ample number of opportunities at Santiago Bernabeu Stadium. But Karim Benzema and Jese Rodriguez scored in each half for Madrid to come out of the first leg with the firm advantage. Boston Red Sox Pro Shop . And Richard Bachman, their rookie goalie, is facing a penalty shot a few seconds after the opening face-off. No pressure, right? Bachman stood his ground against Zack Kassian and saw the puck dribble off the Canuck rookies stick, then settled in and backstopped the Stars to a 5-2 win over Vancouver Tuesday that put Dallas in first place in the Pacific Division. Rick Porcello Red Sox Jersey . -- The Los Angeles Angels have agreed to a minor league contract with reliever Brandon Lyon that includes an invitation to their big league camp for spring training.Russian may evade a total ban on its athletes competing at the Rio Olympics by proposing a compromise that would allow some track-and-field competitors to enter the Games even if the Russian Athletics Federation remains excluded from international competition. Sky News understands that the potential compromise has been discussed at a senior level by government and sporting officials in Moscow.Officials at the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) have also been studying their rule books to see how a compromise might work. The Russian athletics federation (ARAF) was suspended by world athletics governing body in November last year following the revelation of state-supported doping.The IAAF will meet to decide whether to lift the ban in time for Rio on June 17.The Russian Government has denied involvement, but further allegations of doping at the Sochi Winter Olympics, and the obstruction of drug testers currently working in Russia, has made a return in time for Rio harder to justify.There is concern however within the IOC, and among some members of the IAAF Council, at the impact of a total ban on clean athletes. Some consider it a blunt instrument that would punish those who had done nothing wrong. Australian athlete Jared Tallent will be awarded his rightful London 2012 gold medal next month after he was denied it by a Russian competitor who turned out to be doping IOC president Thomas Bach appeared to open the door to a compromise in a series of statements earlier this month, suggesting that even athletes from banned federations could compete in Rio.High-profile athletes including pole-vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva have said they will pursue legal action to allow them to compete in Rio.The counter-argument is that the institutionalised doping revealed in the last year deserves the harshest punishment. Russias Yelena Isinbayeva called on the IAAF to rescind their ban on clean Russian athletes at the annual meeting on 26 November.dddddddddddd A compromise may be possible because the Olympics are overseen by the IOC, rather than sporting federations such as the IAAF, and teams are selected and entered by national Olympic committees.So athletes who are demonstrably clean, to the satisfaction of the IOC, could be selected by the Russian Olympic Committee and compete even if ARAF remains banned.Defining clean is fearsomely difficult however. Athletes may be required to have passed independent tests, but recent re-testing of samples from the 2008 and 2012 Olympics - which have uncovered more than 20 Russians suspected of doping - demonstrate that testing has its limits.Russians would not compete under an Olympic flag, as some stateless athletes have in the past. Russia would be unlikely to accept such a condition, and the risk to the IOC of athletes turning out to be cheats would be enormous. Lord Sebastian Coe rejected claims that London 2012 may have been the dirtiest Olympic Games in history One potential barrier to the compromise is that the athletics events at the Olympics, while under the IOC umbrella, are sanctioned and run by the IAAF. Officials are examining whether this would give the athletics body a second and final veto over Russian participation.The compromise proposal comes with the stakes high for all concerned in the gravest crisis to hit the Olympic movement in years.Sebastian Coe, the IAAF President, is under pressure to demonstrate he is reforming the organisation, and extending the ban on Russia would represent a powerful statement of intent. Coe has described the decision as a come-to-Jesus moment for the sport.Bach has much at stake too. He developed a close relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who invested an estimated $50m (£34.6m) in staging the Sochi Winter Olympics and sees sport as a crucial plank of Russian identity.A solution that allowed all three to save face could have attractions, certainly for Putin, who in a sign of the importance he places on Olympic participation has avoided lashing out at the external forces he traditionally cites as enemies of Russia as he seeks a way back for his athletes. Also See: Rio go-ahead for pro boxers Johnson-Thompson going to Rio Gatlin hits form ahead of Rio Eight Russians fail 2012 retests ' ' '