Rui Costa (cyclist)

Rui Costa

Costa at the 2013 Tour de Romandie.
Personal information
Full name	Rui Alberto Faria da Costa
Born	(1986-10-05) 5 October 1986 Póvoa de Varzim, Portugal
Height	1.83 m (6 ft 0 in)[1]
Weight	63 kg (139 lb; 9.9 st)[1]
Team information
Current team	Lampre–Merida
Discipline	Road
Role	Rider
Rider type	All-rounder
Professional team(s)
2007–2008	Benfica
2009–2013	Caisse d'Epargne[2]
2014–	Lampre–Merida
Major wins
Grand Tours Tour de France 3 individual stages (2011, 2013) Stage races Tour de Suisse (2012, 2013, 2014) Four Days of Dunkirk (2009) Vuelta a la Comunidad de Madrid (2011) One-day races and Classics World Road Race Championships (2013) National Time Trial Championships (2010, 2013) National Road Race Championships (2015) GP de Montréal (2011)
Medal record Road bicycle racing Representing  Portugal World Championships 2013 Florence Road race
Infobox last updated on 4 May 2014

Rui Alberto Faria da Costa, ComIH^[3] (born 5 October 1986) is a Portuguese professional road bicycle racer, who currently rides for UCI ProTeam Lampre–Merida.^[4] He is best known for winning the 2013 UCI Road World Championships in Tuscany, Italy – the first Portuguese to do so, three stages of the Tour de France in 2011 and 2013, and the 2012, 2013 and 2014 editions of the Tour de Suisse, becoming the first cyclist to win the event on three consecutive years.^[5]

Early life and amateur career

Born in Aguçadoura, Póvoa de Varzim, Costa started his career at Guilhabreu, a civil parish of Vila do Conde, then went to Santa Maria da Feira.

Professional career

2007–2011: Early years

Costa at the 2010 Tour de France

Costa became a professional cyclist at SL Benfica in 2007, and switched to Caisse d'Epargne in 2009.

In 2009, Costa won the Four Days of Dunkirk followed a stage 8 win in the 2010 Tour de Suisse.

In 2010, Costa was involved with an altercation with Carlos Barredo at the end of Stage 6 of the Tour de France, with Barredo removing his front wheel and attempting to club Costa with it before both riders lobbed blows at each other. Both were fined 300 francs for the incident.^[6]

At the Portuguese national championships in June 2010 Costa and his brother Mário tested positive for the banned substance methylhexanamine,^[7] which they claimed to have ingested inadvertently due to a tainted food supplement. Further testing proved that to be the case,^[8] and he re-signed with his former team, now known as Movistar Team, in April 2011 after five months of suspension.^[2]

2011

Costa on the podium after winning the 2011 Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal

In 2011, Costa performed well in the Vuelta a la Comunidad de Madrid: after second places at the first and third stage, he won the overall classification.^[9] Later that season, Costa rode away solo to win stage 8 of the 2011 Tour de France.^[10][11] Following his previous successes, Costa won the Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal, sprinting away from a late breakaway. He beat breakaway companion Pierrick Fedrigo. Both were chased by Philippe Gilbert, who made a late counter-attack, but came two seconds short.^[12]

2012

Costa at the 2012 Tour de France

In 2012, Costa finished third in the General classification of the Tour of Romandie.^[13] He won stage 2 in the Tour de Suisse, took the race's lead and successfully defended the yellow jersey through the Tour.^[14] He hung on to his 14 seconds overall lead over second-placed Fränk Schleck in the last stage, where the Luxembourger attacked on the slopes of the Glaubenberg Pass. Schleck crested the climb with an advantage of a minute over Costa, but was reeled back in along the descent by the small group containing the Portuguese rider. The pair finished the stage with the same time.^[15] He said after the important win: "I want to dedicate this to the team, because my teammates worked magnificently all week. I have no words to describe it."^[16] Costa headed to the Tour de France, slated to ride in support of his leader Alejandro Valverde, but crashes and incidents plagued Valverde,^[17] who still managed to grab a stage win and finished 20th overall. Costa placed higher than his captain in the general classification at 18th.^[18] He then participated to the GP Ouest-France, where he settled for second place of the French classic. He escaped on the ultimate climb of the day with 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) to go, but Team Sky's Edvald Boasson Hagen passed him in the final kilometer, and Costa protected his second place as the surging peloton crossed the finish line on his heels.^[19] In September, he headed to the Canadian province of Québec to take part in the two World Tour races held there. He took the third step of the podium in the Grand Prix Cycliste de Québec, winning the sprint of a group of 16 riders in hot pursuit of the two escapees, Simon Gerrans and Greg Van Avermaet, who finished four seconds ahead of Costa.^[20] Two days later, he aimed at defending his title in the Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal, but finished eighth, once again with a 4-second deficit over the winner, Lars Petter Nordhaug.^[21] He concluded his season in China at the Tour of Beijing, scoring another top ten overall placing with ninth.

2013

In 2013,^[22] Costa started the year by winning the Klasika Primavera and finishing third in the Tour de Romandie where he had aimed to defend his Tour de Suisse.^[23] He later successfully defended his title after winning stage seven, and then taking the yellow jersey from Mathias Frank after winning the ultimate stage, a hill climb time trial.^[24] In the Tour de France, Costa left the Pyrenees inside the top ten. On stage 13, Costa lost close to ten minutes after going back to try to help his team leader, Valverde, who flatted. On stage 16, Costa ended up on a breakaway where he attacked in the last climb of the day, the Col de Manse before the final downhill to a solo finish in Gap.^[25] He was also awarded the combativity prize of that stage. A few days later, Costa won stage 19 after escaping from the lead group on the Col de la Croix Fry, he ended up with another solo finish in Le Grand-Bornand.

Costa won the elite men's race at the 2013 UCI Road World Championships in Tuscany, Italy, becoming the first Portuguese rider to wear the rainbow jersey. After the race Costa said: "After the tour, the goal was to reach the World Cup in the best possible conditions and make a good race. But I never thought I could win a race as important as this. It means everything to me. It is the reward for a lifetime of effort and hard work."^[26][27]

Costa left the Movistar Team at the end of the 2013 season, and joined Lampre–Merida for the 2014 season.^[4]

2014

Costa wearing the Rainbow Jersey at the 2014 Tour de Suisse

Costa started the 2014 season by taking third place and the points classification jersey in the Tour of Algarve. He then finished second overall in the Paris-Nice and, for the third consecutive year, claimed the third place in the Tour de Romandie. Costa's first win of the season in the world champion's rainbow jersey occurred in the last stage of the 2014 Tour de Suisse. With this victory Costa took the yellow jersey from Tony Martin and successfully defended his title, thus becoming the first cyclist to win Tour de Suisse three consecutive times.

Costa entered the 2014 Tour de France with high hopes, aiming for a podium finish, but started to lose touch with the front riders due to bronchitis.^[28] During the second rest day, his health condition worsened and he was diagnosed with bronchopneumonia. Ranked 13th in the general classification, Costa was forced to withdraw from the Tour.^[29] He returned to World Tour-level competition at the GP Ouest-France, crossing the finish line in 92nd place, 11 seconds behind winner Sylvain Chavanel.^[30] Costa then competed in the Grand Prix Cycliste de Québec and the Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal, securing a runner-up place in the latter race, behind Simon Gerrans.

Costa went to the 2014 UCI Road World Championships in Ponferrada, Spain, with the aim of defending his road race title; he finished in the 23rd place, seven seconds behind the winner and his successor, Michał Kwiatkowski of Poland.^[31][32]

2015

Costa took the fourth place on the general classification of Paris–Nice as a first notable result, thanks in part to a third place on the time trial up Col d'Èze.^[33] He finished seventh of the mountainous World Tour race Tour of the Basque Country. He also grabbed the fourth place of the Amstel Gold Race, where Michal Kwiatkowski imposed himself;^[34] a week later he would come again in fourth place at Liège-Bastogne-Liège. He decided not to go defend his title at the Tour de Suisse, which he had won three times in a row, and participate to the Critérium du Dauphiné instead.^[35] Costa won the sixth stage of the race after being in the breakaway for most of the day, passing Vincenzo Nibali near the finish line.^[36] A week before the Tour de France, Costa won the National Road Race Championships. At the Tour de France he retired due to injuries picked up in a crash, leading him to announce he would ride for stage wins in the future.^[37]

Career achievements

Major results

Grand Tour general classification results timeline

Grand Tour	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016
Giro	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
Tour	WD	73	90	18	27	WD	WD	49
Vuelta	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—

WD = Withdrew; In Progress = IP

World championships road race classification results timeline

	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016
World	69	—	15	11	1	23	9	—

WD = Withdrew; In Progress = IP

Monuments results timeline

DNF = Did not finish
— = Did not compete

Other major stage races

NH = Not Held

UCI World Tour classification results timeline

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Rui Costa (cyclist).

• Official website
• Rui Costa at Sports Reference
• Rui Costa profile at Cycling Archives
• Rui Costa profile at Cycling Quotient
• Rui Costa profile at ProCyclingStats

{{UCI Road World Champions – Men's road race}}