britain's yates is the giro's clear favourite — after emerging from tuesday's time trial with a signifiant lead. pakistan coach mickey arthur hails his ‘big game‘ players on the eve of their test match in england. and it's gold for bronze... the lyon and england defender has been crowned the bbc women's footballer of the year. hello, welcome to the programme. simon yates has taken a huge step towards becoming the first british rider, to win the giro d'talia. he'll go into the final five days of the tour, in the leaders pinkjersey, after safely negotiating tuesday's time trial. yates now has a 56—second lead, over defending champion tom dumoulin in second. austin halewood reports... with a lead of more than two minutes heading into the final week, the

giro was in sight for simon yates, but lots can change. dennis won the stage on a0 minutes dead and chris froome was not far behind, the four time tour de france champion went up to fourth in overall standings, but with almost four minutes to make up, the only grand tour that eludes him is set to elude him for another year. this was dumoulin‘s stage, with the defending champion targeting the time trial. he showed the italian crowds why. he came home in third but it wasn't enough to end the day in pink. race leader yates was last out of the box with defence as his top priority. the british rider had other ideas, silencing doubters to retain the pinkjersey with a 20 second place finish. his overall lead was cut to 56 seconds but with just five days to go and high ground to come, it looks ever

more likely that the giro will have a first british winner in rome on sunday. pakistan's cricket coach, mickey arthur, claims his team can get the job done against england — as they prepare for the first test at lord's on thursday. pace bowler mohammed amir is likely to play, despite a knee injury... arthurfeels his players records speak for themselves, and is confident they can deliver. we haven't come here not to win. we focus on ourselves. i'm like that, if we play well enough, there are very skilled and young, fearless cricketers. they are intelligent and skilful, a bunch of cricketers who if we get things going our way, will put england under pressure. england's director of cricket, andrew strauss, is to step aside from his role while his wife is treated for cancer. the former captain, who's been

in the job since 2015, left december‘s ashes tour early — when she was diagnosed with the disease. he'll be replaced over the summer by ex—england coach andy flower. the official website of unia emery — has shown an image of the manager, with the slogan ‘proud to be part of the arsenal family'. .. the former paris st german manager is set to be unveiled as arsene wenger‘s successor this week. the london club has yet to confirm emery as the new head coach. but on tuesday an image of emery alongside an arsenal crest and carrying the slogan appeared on his official website — before being removed. argentina and manchester united goalkeeper sergio romero, has been ruled out of the world cup — due to a knee injury. the 31—year—old has 9a caps for his country, and played every match during their world cup qualifying campaign... as argentina finished third behind brazil and uruguay. romero was named in argentina's 23—man squad on monday, along with fellow keepers willy caballero and franco armani. toni kroos has warned his

real madrid team—mates to expect a rough ride — from jurgen klopp‘s liverpool... as they prepare for the champions league final on saturday. kroos and klopp are familiar foes — from their time spent in the german bundesliga... the former bayern munich midfielder having gone up against klopp‘s dortmund seven times. real have won the competition three times in the past four seasons, while liverpool's last success was in 2005... despite beating liverpool twice, in their most recent encounter in nearly fours ago — kroos is adamant things will be harder this weekend. i think it is a great achievement, for liverpool to reach the final and have a chance of winning the champions league. yeah, my experience with him is that he plays tough teams. with us some years ago, it was difficult to play against

because his teams have always had more or less the same style of playing football. that's why i'm sure it will be very difficult for us on sure it will be very difficult for us on saturday because i know how he is able to motivate his team. it gives him a very good tactic for the games. i'm sure it will be difficult, but i'm also sure that it will be difficult for liverpool. tottenham hotspur‘s harry kane will captain england at the world cup next month. its not the first time the striker‘s worn the armband — he led the side during last year's world cup qualifer against scotland, and then a further three times after that. manager gareth southgate says kane has the "belief and high standards" that will set an example to the rest of the team. we area we are a bit afraid to say that we wa nt to we are a bit afraid to say that we want to win stuff. for fear of reaction from the media orfans. that may have made the players go into a bit of a shell. what i'm trying to say is we are not

afraid to win it, every country wa nts to afraid to win it, every country wants to win it. we have to be brave and take it on the chin. going out ina group and take it on the chin. going out in a group stage, or the final, it's the same. we need to discuss that hurts players. have that fear. lyon and england defender lucy bronze has been crowned bbc women's footballer of the year 2018. thousands of fans from across the world cast their votes, and the bbc‘s sarah mulkerrins had the honour of handing over the award. for the second year in a row we are here in lyon to hand out the award, it has gone to england and lyon's lucy bronze, the winner this year. the reason we are so lucy bronze, the winner this year. the reason we are so quiet is that we are about to surprise the team and handing over the award is lucy's

auntiejulie. and handing over the award is lucy's auntie julie. how do you feel? i'm so auntie julie. how do you feel? i'm so proud i want to cry! what does this mean to her? such excitement, she likes to win! that is what she is all about. winning cups or wards, whatever! my heart is racing, yours must be! you will come through with the trophy but we are going to go through now... ready? hello! cheering clapping laughter lucy bronze! lucy bronze, congratulations, you are the bbc women's footballer of the year. cheering

that is some reception!” cheering that is some reception! i know! i didn't know what was happening! are you surprised? absolutely. look at this person beside you, she went through this experience last year. what is going through her mind? through this experience last year. what is going through her mind7m course, she is surprised. i polished the trophy a lot, she should take ca re of the trophy a lot, she should take care of it! i didn't know why eve ryo ne care of it! i didn't know why everyone was clapping at first. i'm surprised, and very grateful to have got the award. i was really grateful to even be nominated. people nominated alongside me were great players. it's really special to have won this year. you notice that we do not have the trophy, we have the trophy coming with a special guest... turn this way... cheering applause

laughter there is the award! thank you. congratulations to lucy bronze there. europe's ryder cup captain thomas bjorn has picked lee westwood, graeme mcdowell, padraig harrington and luke donald as vice—captains for this year's ryder cup against the united states. westwood has won seven times as a player. the quartet could still qualify to play in the tournament, but westwood is the only player currently ranked inside the world's top 200. the ryder cup starts in paris on 28 september... with europe looking to regain the trophy. you can get all the latest sports news at our website — that's bbc.com/sport. but from me and the rest of the sport today team, goodbye. the weather is looking fine across

the uk. 0n the weather is looking fine across the uk. on wednesday it will feel warm as well. clear blue skies on the way. not necessarily from the word "go". in the morning, in eastern and northern counties, it will be cloudy. it's the big picture across this part of the world, here, the jet stream with system is being diverted northwards. in the direction of iceland and scandinavia, this jet stream this far north, we are well away from it. so the weather will be settled. warming up across europe over the next few days. the warmth is heading through us to the end of the week.

short—term, this is how it looks. those are the morning temperatures. here is the cloud first thing, it burns back to the coastal line that these coastal districts here could stay cool and cloudy. here are those yellows compared to the deep oranges. a contrast across the uk. it could even be a 10 degrees difference. 23 in london, 13 in newcastle. but for most, a fine and beautiful day. a slight change, quite a big change, on. it may be a small weather front but it will upset weather in southern areas, pretty much from the word" go". some heavy rain for some time, there could be thunder too. it sticks around across much of thursday. a big contrast on the way across the uk on thursday, with the cloudier

wetter south to much sunnier weather in yorkshire, northern ireland and scotland. this weather front on thursday evening and into friday will move further northwards. for many of us, towards the end of the week, we will at least catch some rainfall. this rain, through thursday morning and into the afternoon across the midlands, wales and yorkshire, there is certainly rain on the way for sheffield. but in the south that improves. beyond that, it looks as though we will see a plume of warmth coming out of the cell. a mini heatwave and it hots up in france. temperatures will be rising come the weekend. 0n in france. temperatures will be rising come the weekend. on saturday and sunday, we could be talking about highs of up to 20 degrees in some areas. modest values there. it will warm up significant. welcome to bbc news. broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. my name is lewis vaughanjones. our top stories: ‘a substantial chance of delay'.

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