BMC, Team-Garmin Sharp back for USA Pro Challenge

DENVER – Headlining the lineup for the fourth USA Pro Challenge next month are BMC, Cannondale, Team Garmin-Sharp, Tinkoff-Saxo and Trek Factory Racing.

Tour officials announced the 16-team lineup Monday. Trek Factory Racing is one of seven teams that will be making its debut appearance in the seven-stage race that covers 550 miles from Aspen to Denver on Aug. 18-24. Full rosters will be announced closer to the race.

Along with the UCI pro teams, four UCI Professional Continental teams are signed up: Drapac, Team NetApp-Endura, Team Novo Nordisk and UnitedHealthcare.

NBA

Clippers’ future on the line as probate trial resumes

LOS ANGELES – The probate trial on the future of the Los Angeles Clippers resumed Monday.

The trial deals with whether a deal negotiated by Donald Sterling’s estranged wife to sell the team for $2 billion is authorized under a Sterling family trust.

Sterling agreed to the sale but then tried to revoke consent in spite of a signed letter instructing his wife Shelly Sterling to sell for the highest price she could get.

The court action to resolve the matter has been under way since last month but was in recess for a week.

With three days of hearings ahead, Donald Sterling’s lawyers suggested they would call the battling couple back to the witness stand separately to address unanswered questions.

Olympics

South Korea needs new Olympic organizing leader

SEOUL, South Korea – The head of Pyeongchang’s organizing committee for the 2018 Winter Olympics resigned Monday, saying new leadership is needed to complete preparations for the games.

A former provincial governor, Kim Jin-sun was elected president of the PyeongChang Organizing Committee in late 2011 after Pyeongchang won the right to host the Winter Olympics for the first time in South Korea. He was re-elected last year for another two-year term.

The POCOG is yet to comment on the process for replacing Kim or his likely successor.

Soccer

South Americans are refusing to return to Ukranian club

MOSCOW – Six South Americans – five Brazilians and one Argentine – have refused to return to Ukraine to play for their soccer club in the troubled city of Donetsk, risking possible fines and suspensions for breach of contract.

The players remained in France following Ukrainian league champion Shakhtar Donetsk’s friendly against Lyon on Saturday. The Ukrainian military is attempting to retake Donetsk in the east of the country from pro-Russian rebels.

“If they don’t come then in the first instance they will suffer,” the club’s billionaire owner, Rinat Akhmetov, said in a statement Monday on the Shakhtar website.

Refusing to fulfil their contracts could cost the players “tens of millions of euros” in compensation payments to the club, he warned.

The players did not return with the team for Tuesday’s Ukrainian Super Cup against Dynamo Kiev, which will be played in the western city of Lviv.

English soccer captain bids farewell to international play

LONDON – England captain Steven Gerrard announced his retirement from the national team.

The 34-year-old Liverpool midfielder made 114 appearances for England over 14 years.

Gerrard said Monday he “agonized”’ over his future after the World Cup in Brazil, where England went out in the first round.

He tells the Football Association that “this has been a very difficult decision, one of the toughest I’ve had to make in my career.”

Gerrard says his international retirement helps “ensure I can keep playing to a high level and giving everything to Liverpool Football Club.”

Associated Press