Rui Costa Discussion Thread

[Parrulo]

Rainbow wristband . . . soon on local stores

 

[canyonball]

Those and merida bikes will sell like cupcakes over here.

There's a recpetion for Rui Costa today at Aeroporto Sá Carneiro, Porto. 18h local time

 

[BigMac]

The Future

Rui, his girlfriend Carla, his parents and his brother

Touching the sky

Rui and a cadete

 

[canyonball]

1,500 people. Crazy atmosphere from what I've seen on RTP.

Let's hope there's a TDF champion somewhere in the first picture (and many more champions to get into cycling from now on).

 

[vedrafjord]

Picture give you the impression of Neymar and a random fan But still, Rui Costa is a hell of football name

Yep

 

[canyonball]

Amateur video of the reception at the airport LINK

 

[BigMac]

According to TVI (generalist TV channel) Rui Costa will participate in the Tour de France in Japan, next week. The most amazing of all, they will broadcast it, as the news pivot mentioned.

Not surprised.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=YbNLz0DqXfk

 

[jens_attacks]

it's the saitama criterium organized by the tour de france's organizers

and yes it will be broadcasted live on eurosport.

 

[Angliru]

Rui Costa and a random fan
(For those who don't follow football, Neymar, Barcelona's player.)

He kind of looks like Joseph Gordon-Levitt from the movie Inception and more recently Don Jon.

 

[BigMac]

it's the saitama criterium organized by the tour de france's organizers

and yes it will be broadcasted live on eurosport.

Saitama Criterium as far as i am concerned it's not Le Tour de France.

Yes i knew he will participate in it. Since it was confirmed.

The broadcasting thingy was mainly because, how can you broadcast something that doesn't exist? It was TVI not Eurosport btw.

 

[jens_attacks]

thought they were smarter, didn't read the link, sorry

but yes saitama is like the tour de france


froomey wins.

 

[canyonball]

She could have said Saitama Criterium. Other than that...

TVI 24 WILL broadcast the race.

 

[Parrulo]

So the Tour has soft mountain stages, cobbles and a flat time trial.

Costa must be happy, he is good on cobbles, in fact his fight with abarca back in 2010 was because abarca wanted him to focus on cobbles while he wanted to become a stage racer. Limited amount of really high mountains and a nice fllat time trial to regain time on better climbers is also good for him.

If he fails to achieve whatever he thinks he can achieve GC wise with this route, he should really give up on GT's as he will have a hard time finding a better suited route.

I think he can end up somewhere between 10th and 6th on GC, better than that doesn't seem too realistic

 

[Jux1893]

he is good on cobbles

Where do you get that from? His best on the cobbles was 58th in Paris-Robaix (I'm not sure if 4 Jours de Dunkerke has any cobbles or not).

Either way, the cobbles will at least not hurt him as much as it will Froome, Contador or Nibali. Might turn out to be a good Tour de France for him.

 

[Parrulo]

Where do you get that from? His best on the cobbles was 58th in Paris-Robaix (I'm not sure if 4 Jours de Dunkerke has any cobbles or not).

Either way, the cobbles will at least not hurt him as much as it will Froome, Contador or Nibali. Might turn out to be a good Tour de France for him.

He is good when compared to other GC guys, not when compared to Boonen obviously.

He rode a lot of flemish races on his first few years at abarca, and like you said he even finished roubaix on his first year as a 22 year old which is more impressive than it seems considering its Roubaix.

Also if he wasn't any good at cobbles Abarca wouldn't push him on that direction, they wanted him to keep his u23 weight and have a go particularly at the ronde. Which is why he was leaving the team in 2010..

So he has experience racing on cobbles, which is something most GC riders don't.

 

[ColAgnel]

He is good when compared to other GC guys, not when compared to Boonen obviously.

He rode a lot of flemish races on his first few years at abarca, and like you said he even finished roubaix on his first year as a 22 year old which is more impressive than it seems considering its Roubaix.

Also if he wasn't any good at cobbles Abarca wouldn't push him on that direction, they wanted him to keep his u23 weight and have a go particularly at the ronde. Which is why he was leaving the team in 2010..

So he has experience racing on cobbles, which is something most GC riders don't.

This is true. Also, i met him and Froome today (i think they will travel together to Japan). Asked him if he will give P-R a try next year and he answered ''maybe''.

 

[hrotha]

Wait wait wait.

UNZUE wanted one of his riders to focus on the cobbles?

 

[Parrulo]

Wait wait wait.

UNZUE wanted one of his riders to focus on the cobbles?

Not cobbles per ser, flandrian races would probably be more correct. They wanted him to become a pure classics rider instead of the stage racer/ hilly classics guy he is.

Take a look at Costa's schedule on his first 2 years at Caisse, both times he rode the Ronde, Roubaix and Dunkerque and in 2010 they even added GW to his schedule.

And to be fair if we look at his 09 roubaix, he finished on the same group as EBH and Ladagnous who are around his age and to this day still target PR.

Costa wasn't too happy with that and that is why he was leaving Caisse in 2010.

 

[hrotha]

I always assumed that was just Unzue using his youngsters as classics filler.

 

[BigMac]

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

Not cobbles per ser, flandrian races would probably be more correct. They wanted him to become a pure classics rider instead of the stage racer/ hilly classics guy he is.

Take a look at Costa's schedule on his first 2 years at Caisse, both times he rode the Ronde, Roubaix and Dunkerque and in 2010 they even added GW to his schedule.

And to be fair if we look at his 09 roubaix, he finished on the same group as EBH and Ladagnous who are around his age and to this day still target PR.

Costa wasn't too happy with that and that is why he was leaving Caisse in 2010.

he wasn't leaving caisse he was suspended and all young riders in caisse/unzue have to pay their dues first years by doing some northern wt races.

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

I always assumed that was just Unzue using his youngsters as classics filler.

that's what it was. euskaltel also always did the same thing

 

[canyonball]

As I remember , Rui Costa was unhappy with his calendar at Caisse and wanted to leave. THEN the suspension happened. Followed ironically by a return to Unzue team.

 

[ColAgnel]

thought they were smarter, didn't read the link, sorry

but yes saitama is like the tour de france


froomey wins.

You called it.

 

[Opalius]

I wonder if he'll manage to surpass Ronaldo once again. Even though my Portuguese is pretty non-existing I think he believes it's possible: fb.me/3wI4SbgSt

Recent portrait of Costa:

http://www.cyclingquotes.com/news/rui_costa_-_the_worlds_9_best_pro-rider/