Tour de France: The German city of Dusseldorf will stage the 2017 Tour De France’s Grand Depart, the Amaury Sport Organisation have announced. Thirty years after the Tour last started in what was then West Germany, cyclists will return to the country for the beginning of the 104th edition of the race. Cologne, Frankfurt and West Berlin have all been venues for the peloton’s departure since the Tour de France’s start was first taken out of France in 1954, with the 2017 race the 22nd to begin outside of French borders.
Basketball: The president of CSKA Moscow’s basketball team is in a stable condition in hospital after being attacked in the street on Monday, the club confirmed. Russian media reported that Andrei Vatutin was met by several assailants and was hit with a rubber baton, suffering injuries to his head, hands and feet.
Badminton: Scottish badminton doubles specialist Imogen Bankier has announced her retirement from international badminton. The 28-year-old was one of only four British players to compete at the London 2012 Olympics, playing mixed doubles alongside Chris Adcock. Prior to that she won World Championship silver with Adcock in London in 2011 and she went on to win the Commonwealth Games bronze medal with Robert Blair in her native Glasgow last year.
Basket, NBA: Kobe Bryant returned from a shoulder injury to inspire Los Angeles Lakers to a 111-107 NBA victory over the Denver Nuggets yesterday. Having missed Saturday’s loss to Oklahoma City Thunder with a sore right shoulder, Bryant tied a season high with 31 points as the Lakers rallied from a 21-point first-half deficit to stun the short-handed Nuggets.
[attach id=478362 size="medium"][/attach]
Tennis: Novak Djokovic and Serena Williams (picture, right) were declared world champions for 2015 by the ITF. The Serb ended the year as men’s world number one for the fourth time after taking three majors – the Australian, Wimbledon and US Open, as well as finishing runner-up to Stan Wawrinka in the French. Williams also narrowly missed a calendar-year grand slam, winning the Australian, French and Wimbledon and reaching her home US Open semi-final.
Cricket: Australia captain Steve Smith was named ICC Cricketer of the Year for 2015 yesterday after scoring a world leading 1,734 runs at an average of 82.57 with seven centuries over the voting period. The 26-year-old right-hander kept the Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy in Australia for the third straight year after pace bowler Mitchell Johnson and his predecessor as skipper, Michael Clarke, won in 2014 and 2013.
Motor Racing: Nissan has withdrawn from next year’s World Endurance Championship (WEC), which has the Le Mans 24 Hours as its headline race, after their 2015 car proved uncompetitive. “The teams worked diligently to bring the vehicles up to the desired performance levels,” the Japanese company said. “However, the company concluded that the programme would not be able to reach its ambitions and decided to focus on developing its longer term racing strategies.”