Rui Costa: a rising star?

[miguelvazpinto]

As a portuguese cycling fan, I truly believe that he will be better and beter along the years. What do you think? Which type of races suits him better?

 

[hrotha]

Hilly classics and random hilly stages, quite obviously.

I think he'll get himself a nice palmares but he won't make many friends in the peloton.

 

[El Pistolero]

Time will wait to see if he'll turn out into a real classics kinda guy or more like a Durand kinda guy.

 

[Timmy-loves-Rabo]

In my pro-cycling manager game at the moment he is already a star

 

[greenedge]

Future winner of F-W. I think he could podium LBL sometime soon as well.

 

[Parrulo]

In my pro-cycling manager game at the moment he is already a star

lol how good are his stats after your first season?

well rui already said he wants to focus on the hilly classics(said he dreams of winning liege one day) and imo thats the right decision. he lost a few kilos on the last off-season to improve his climbing a bit and i dunno know if he plans on losing some more but i hope he doesn't so he can also focus on the ronde and M-SR and become some sort of gilbert.

but i think he plans on dropping 1 or 2 more kilos to improve his high mountains climbing so he can also focus on some week long stages as he also has a good time trial.

anyway the talent is there and he seems to be strong enough mentally to deliver (unlike machado tbh)

i expect him to top 10 lombardy this year and to go on to top 10 liege next year and then to keep improving. he is only 24 and already handles the distance very well so. . . time will tell i guess

 

[Parrulo]

Future winner of F-W. I think he could podium LBL sometime soon as well.

actually liege suits him better then fleche

 

[Zam_Olyas]

his next fight should be better than the previous one lol...to be serious i hope he wins more next year and continue to grow as a rider.

 

[theyoungest]

Future winner of F-W. I think he could podium LBL sometime soon as well.

Fleche is absolutely not suited to him, he's a tactically smart rider, Fleche is just raw power.

 

[Havetts]

lol how good are his stats after your first season?

In mine just past the TdF without training camps hes on 77 climbing, 76 hills and 76 timetrialing.

 

[hrotha]

In mine just past the TdF without training camps hes on 77 climbing, 76 hills and 76 timetrialing.

That's a bit too much IMO. I'd put him at 73-77-74 or so, with ~65 recovery.

 

[Parrulo]

That's a bit too much IMO. I'd put him at 73-77-74 or so, with ~65 recovery.

actually his recovery seems to have improved a great deal the past year or so. on the alp d'huez stage he and riblon were the only riders from the break to be able to keep up with contador and andy and he had been struggling since the end of the first week with a tendinitis on his right knee. ofc he then lost tons of time on the alp but still not bad i would say.

i would put it around the early 70's in terms of stats in pcm

i agree with you on the climbing part tho. anything about 74/75 for him is too much atm. the time trial. . . well ya somewhere btw 74-76 is about right

 

[hrotha]

Yeah but the recovery stat seems to be the only tool PCM has to make sure classics riders don't go around being GC contenders, so I find you often have to keep it artificially low for this kind of rider.

 

[Parrulo]

Yeah but the recovery stat seems to be the only tool PCM has to make sure classics riders don't go around being GC contenders, so I find you often have to keep it artificially low for this kind of rider.

well ya that is certainly true. i did that with vanendert when i edited my pcm database. its annoying to have some1 like ricco(2010 databse) beating the crap out of you for the first 2 weeks of the giro only for you to put minutes into him on the last 2 mountain stages and itt because he only has 76 at recovery

 

[Timmy-loves-Rabo]

lol how good are his stats after your first season?

well rui already said he wants to focus on the hilly classics(said he dreams of winning liege one day) and imo thats the right decision. he lost a few kilos on the last off-season to improve his climbing a bit and i dunno know if he plans on losing some more but i hope he doesn't so he can also focus on the ronde and M-SR and become some sort of gilbert.

but i think he plans on dropping 1 or 2 more kilos to improve his high mountains climbing so he can also focus on some week long stages as he also has a good time trial.

anyway the talent is there and he seems to be strong enough mentally to deliver (unlike machado tbh)

i expect him to top 10 lombardy this year and to go on to top 10 liege next year and then to keep improving. he is only 24 and already handles the distance very well so. . . time will tell i guess

he improved heaps man.
Especially in year one. He maybe stagnated after year one a lil, but he is already excellent now. (after giro 12')

79 hills
something like 74 mountains and tt
fighter, flats and acceleration +70
res/stamina close to 73-75 i think.

and yeh his recovery is like 65-70 i think..

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

hilly classics star, potentially.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Better suited to Lombardy I would have thought, with his tactical awareness and medium mountain ability (he won the Vuelta a Madrid on the Puerto Morcuera this year for example). He won Super-Besse not by being a great climber of short, steep climbs but by being really good at dosing efforts and knowing when to go. Ditto that Tour de Suisse stage he won last year.

So yes, hilly classics man, but not suited to a finish like Flèche, because when was the last time a group got away there? He's best at beating a group with tactics rather than going from the péloton, so Liège is actually more likely his terrain than Flèche; I could also see him winning Amstel in the way Sergei Ivanov did, and San Sebastián is most definitely something he could definitely win in the near future.

Other than that, it's stagehunting in the big races, maybe contending for the GC in medium mountain and short stage races (Tirreno-Adriatico, Paris-Nice and Romandie could be within his capability, depending on parcours, but País Vasco, Burgos and Suisse probably shouldn't be), and that's your lot.

 

[jens_attacks]

great lieutenant for valverde(who by the way said he's slimmer than ever and he will focus on the classics and le tour) but also strong enough to win big races for himself.

 

[trevim]

Better suited to Lombardy I would have thought, with his tactical awareness and medium mountain ability (he won the Vuelta a Madrid on the Puerto Morcuera this year for example). He won Super-Besse not by being a great climber of short, steep climbs but by being really good at dosing efforts and knowing when to go. Ditto that Tour de Suisse stage he won last year.

So yes, hilly classics man, but not suited to a finish like Flèche, because when was the last time a group got away there? He's best at beating a group with tactics rather than going from the péloton, so Liège is actually more likely his terrain than Flèche; I could also see him winning Amstel in the way Sergei Ivanov did, and San Sebastián is most definitely something he could definitely win in the near future.

Other than that, it's stagehunting in the big races, maybe contending for the GC in medium mountain and short stage races (Tirreno-Adriatico, Paris-Nice and Romandie could be within his capability, depending on parcours, but País Vasco, Burgos and Suisse probably shouldn't be), and that's your lot.

And lead Portugal in the worlds. Not that he would be on the same status of Evans, Gilbert,... but just getting a nice position one of these years.

 

[c&cfan]

And lead Portugal in the worlds. Not that he would be on the same status of Evans, Gilbert,... but just getting a nice position one of these years.

i would like to know why ribeiro wasn't selected?
sergio would've killed them last year without any doubt

this year maybe just a podium.

we have so much talent but even domestique races are becoming a spanish nest.

about rui, i see him as a 2nd leader next year in pretty much anything where valverde is racing and leader when he isn't. even if he does not win any great GC, he will give a show and steal some stages.

i am also waiting for mach ado to deliver.

p.s: who here is portuguese?

 

[Parrulo]

he improved heaps man.
Especially in year one. He maybe stagnated after year one a lil, but he is already excellent now. (after giro 12')

79 hills
something like 74 mountains and tt
fighter, flats and acceleration +70
res/stamina close to 73-75 i think.

and yeh his recovery is like 65-70 i think..

needs a bit more res and stamina to compete on the monuments

does he still has progression margin?

 

[Libertine Seguros]

we have so much talent but even domestique races are becoming a spanish nest.

I think the problem is that they're starting to cease to be a Spanish nest.

The problem was that the leaders of the Portuguese teams were Spanish riders, usually Puerto exiles, for a while - Blanco, Bernabéu, Santi Pérez, Zaballa, Plaza, Eladio Jiménez, Nozal - and Spanish riders based mainly in Portugal - Héctor Guerra - and this kind of blocked Portuguese talent from coming through, because they were rarely getting the chance to ride for themselves. Especially when fatboy Cândido Barbosa was Liberty Seguros' GC candidate and people like Nuno Ribeiro were sacrificed for him; now, after Ribeiro won A Volta but tested positive, and Cândido's retired, there aren't many people if any in the Portuguese péloton that the man in the street knows of. Ribeiro is perhaps in the Barbosa mould, but nothing like as well-known, and now that those Spanish riders who led the scene for so long have fled - Plaza to the World Tour, Blanco and Bernabéu to ProContinental teams (they're over the hill now anyway), Zaballa to Italy, Jiménez, Guerra and Nozal to suspension - you're left with a group of Portuguese former domestiques and Spanish journeymen who aren't capturing the imagination. Certainly the likes of Cardoso and Broco have the chance to, but they've been buried for a long time - Cardoso because he was domestiquing for Blanco, Broco because he didn't fit in at Liberty - and now they're moving to Caja Rural, the Volta is weakened yet again, as now there's the distinct possibility that even the top Portuguese names won't be there.

 

[trevim]

i would like to know why ribeiro wasn't selected?
sergio would've killed them last year without any doubt

this year maybe just a podium.

we have so much talent but even domestique races are becoming a spanish nest.

about rui, i see him as a 2nd leader next year in pretty much anything where valverde is racing and leader when he isn't. even if he does not win any great GC, he will give a show and steal some stages.

i am also waiting for mach ado to deliver.

p.s: who here is portuguese?

It was just a dumb thing not to select Ribeiro for this year. He's the best portuguese sprinter. Not that he would get close to Cav or anything near a top10 but at least he could do something in the finale.

PS: Last time I checked I was portuguese

 

[miguelvazpinto]

i would like to know why ribeiro wasn't selected?
sergio would've killed them last year without any doubt

this year maybe just a podium.

we have so much talent but even domestique races are becoming a spanish nest.

about rui, i see him as a 2nd leader next year in pretty much anything where valverde is racing and leader when he isn't. even if he does not win any great GC, he will give a show and steal some stages.

i am also waiting for mach ado to deliver.

p.s: who here is portuguese?

I am portuguse

 

[Parrulo]

I am portuguse

there are a few portuguese guys here(i am also portuguese) indeed tho some don't post that often.

anyway now that you got your answer, was this the answer you were expecting?

are you going to watch the GdL next saturday mad waiting for a good result like me?