Italy’s Mario Cipollini won the fourth stage of the Tour de France Wednesday with the fastest average speed ever recorded in the race. He won the 194.5 km stage with an average speed of 50.355 kilometers per hour. The previous record was from 1993. Estonian rider Jaan Kirsipuu, who finished fifth on the stage, retained the overall lead with a 16-second lead over Australian Stuart O’Grady. One of the favorites, Spain’s Abraham Olano, is currently in sixth place overall, 35 seconds behind Kirsipuu.

Also in cycling news, Danish rider Bjarne Riis, who won the Tour de France in 1996, has been denied a new contract with his team Deutsche Telekom. Riis has been haunted by injuries this season, but the team manager Walter Godefroot hopes that Riis will be able to compete later in the season. His contract expires at the end of this year.

In Paraguay, soccer’s Copa America continues with the group play being close to finished. From Group A, the home team and Peru have already qualified for the quarterfinals, while Bolivia and Japan are out of the tournament. Brazil, Mexico and Chile qualified from Group B while Colombia is already qualified from Group C. In this last group, the winner of the game between Uruguay and Argentina will also qualify. The loser of this game will have to await the outcome of the game between Ecuador and Colombia.

Also in soccer news, the governing body of the sport, FIFA, has decided to postpone the vote for the 2006 World Cup until July next year. In another announcement, FIFA said that Europe will have to give up half a place at the next World Cup in 2002, giving it to Asia. The two last qualifying teams on both continents will meet in a playoff to decide who will play in the finals.

In Gstaad, Switzerland, the Swiss Open started Monday. Top seed Gustavo Kuerten from Brazil lost in the second round to American Vince Spadea. The other seeded players, including Spain’s Felix Mantilla, are all through to the second round.

The Swedish Open in tennis also saw some of the favorites lose early. Top seed Dominik Hrbaty from the Czech Republic lost to American Jeff Tarango, while last year’s winner Magnus Gustafsson lost to Argentina’s Martin Rodriguez.

In Formula One racing, the Jordan team confirmed Wednesday that German Heinz-Harald Frentzen, this year’s winner of the French Grand Prix, will continue to drive for the team next year. It is still uncertain who Jordan’s second driver will be as Damon Hill from England announced his retirement earlier this season.

Morocco’s Hicham El Guerrouj broke the men’s mile world record at a track event in Rome, Italy on Wednesday. He just beat Kenya’s Noah Ngeny and finished on 3.43.13. The old record was held by Algeria’s Noureddine Morceli, and dated back to 1993. El Guerrouj broke this record by 27 hundreds of a second.

Another world record was set by Czech decathlete Tomas Dvorak, who beat Dan O’Brien’s old record from 1992. Dvorak recorded 8,994 points in Prague last Sunday.

Finally, the Women’s World Cup Soccer final is played between the United States and China in Pasadena this Saturday. Norway and Brazil will play for the bronze medal in a game before the final.