Rui Costa Discussion Thread

[Parrulo]

Shitty luck today with the sky rider crashing in front of him when he was looking pretty good.

Not that it would change much as looking at the way the race was going, a sprinter was always going to win.

 

[BigMac]

Shitty luck today with the sky rider crashing in front of him when he was looking pretty good.

Not that it would change much as looking at the way the race was going, a sprinter was always going to win.

Very crappy. Fortunately nothing broken, ''only'' some bruises and sore legs.

 

[Echoes]

Yes a sprinter was always going to win for sure. Classic haters are gonna hate.
Wit a group of merely 26 riders packed together in the end...

I hope the crash won't deter Rui from coming back next year. Many skip it for safety reasons, which is sad. Milan-Sanremo needs riders like him.

 

[Parrulo]

Very interesting, for the first time in a long time he won't be racing the Tour de Suisse and will race the Dauphine instead. Could he be doing this so he doesn't feel the pressure to be in good form in june fighting for the win?

 

[trevim]

Re:

Very interesting, for the first time in a long time he won't be racing the Tour de Suisse and will race the Dauphine instead. Could he be doing this so he doesn't feel the pressure to be in good form in june fighting for the win?

Good choice, he will have far less pressure in the Dauphine.

 

[jens_attacks]

rettenbachferner is not for rui costa,is at 2800 meters or something
dauphine route is good for him, hell he might even win it

 

[Parrulo]

3rd in the Dauphine behind Froome and TJVG

He was very bad at the start of the week but his performance improved a lot as the stages went on and i dare to say that by the end of the race only Froome was stronger than him.

He said that he came to the Dauphine instead of swiss so he could come in lesser form without feeling the pressure to win the race and i think it might have been a very good decision.

For some reason i feel like his current level is higher than his level at the TdS last year and if, like he says, he still has a margin to improve until the Tour, he might actually reach a decent place at the lower levels of the top 10 (5th to 10th).

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Actually, even in the TdS races he won he was almost always bad/worse in the first few stages. I remember last year he was pretty crappy as well on Crans Montana at the beginning.

I wonder if he'll be ok in the Tour now or still too early in shape and fading in 2nd/3rd week.

 

[Parrulo]

Re:

Actually, even in the TdS races he won he was almost always bad/worse in the first few stages. I remember last year he was pretty crappy as well on Crans Montana at the beginning.

I wonder if he'll be ok in the Tour now or still too early in shape and fading in 2nd/3rd week.

Actually last year he was crappy all week except for the time trial where he was very strong.

He was 9th on Verbier really struggling to finish in the same group as Tony Martin and Philip Deignan. Without Frank's attack 50k out he wouldn't have won and at the time he really struggled to follow that attack.

Remember how you and i were discussing his's and Mollema's chances of doing well at the Tour and we both though they were pretty low because they didn't look that great?

I still feel like Costa has regressed overall since 2013, he was in brutal form from june to the worlds, and until the last couple of days i actually thought he had taken yet another step back from last year to this year. But i don't know anymore. He ended the week stronger than Rodriguez, Nibali and Valverde, which is much different than beating Mathias Frank.

 

[BigMac]

^^ Well spotted D_T. I got something to post here on that after finishing somthing on the Race Design Thread.

I also agree with much of that Parrulo, and good eyes see you.

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

Re: Re:

Actually, even in the TdS races he won he was almost always bad/worse in the first few stages. I remember last year he was pretty crappy as well on Crans Montana at the beginning.

I wonder if he'll be ok in the Tour now or still too early in shape and fading in 2nd/3rd week.

Actually last year he was crappy all week except for the time trial where he was very strong.

He was 9th on Verbier really struggling to finish in the same group as Tony Martin and Philip Deignan. Without Frank's attack 50k out he wouldn't have won and at the time he really struggled to follow that attack.

Remember how you and i were discussing his's and Mollema's chances of doing well at the Tour and we both though they were pretty low because they didn't look that great?

I still feel like Costa has regressed overall since 2013, he was in brutal form from june to the worlds, and until the last couple of days i actually thought he had taken yet another step back from last year to this year. But i don't know anymore. He ended the week stronger than Rodriguez, Nibali and Valverde, which is much different than beating Mathias Frank.

If he has actually managed to avoid peaking to early and still has room to improve, things are looking very good for him. He was stronger than most of the guys who will fancy their chances of finishing 6-10th.

 

[BigMac]

Re:

Actually, even in the TdS races he won he was almost always bad/worse in the first few stages. I remember last year he was pretty crappy as well on Crans Montana at the beginning.

I wonder if he'll be ok in the Tour now or still too early in shape and fading in 2nd/3rd week.

This is empirically proven. You can go as far back as to 2012 to spot this and another trend in his riding by this time of the year. That is that not only did he always find his form and made most of the difference on the last stages of Suisse, and now the Dauphiné, he has had his best days on the antepenult and last stages, with a bad day inbetween. This may tell a lot about his recovery. Still, funny how it is as certain as death and taxes. The only exception I can find was when he won in Verbier back in '12, which was on stage 2. He also often does a bad prologue. Let's see:

Tour de Suisse 2012
Prologue: 45th, loses 36 seconds to Sagan.
Stage 1: Takes the yellow jersey ahead of Fränk Schleck.
Stage 2: Sagan one-man-show.
Stage 3: Isaychev wins from the break, reaches safely 11 minutes down in the peloton.
Stage 4: Sagan one-man-show.
Stage 5: Sagan one-man-show.
Stage 6: Does an amazing TT against all expectations.
Stage 7: Schleck, Levi, Nieve attack, Gesink, Pinot, Danielson finish not much behind, Costa craps himself inside out trying not to lose the jersey, and has to thank Valverde for the outstanding effort.
Stage 8: Back on his best and, still with a bit of help from Valverde, manages to not to lose time to a daemonic Schleck and Leipheimer.

Tour de Suisse 2013
Prologue: 53rd, loses 40 seconds to Cam Meyer.
Stage 1: As Dekker mentioned, subpar performance up Crans Montana, finishing 14th with every other contender ahead of him.
Stage 2: Finishes second behind Sagan, but benefits from a slow pace up the previous climb and Scarponi crashing near the summit, which cut the group in half leaving those two, Kreuziger and Mathias Frank alone.
Stage 3: Sprint, Démare takes it.
Stage 4: Sprint, Kristoff takes it.
Stage 5: Break, Gregory Rast takes it.
Stage 6: Wins in La Punt after an impressive display up the Albulapass, leading TJVG the entire descent, being sabotaged by a deflated inflatable, and still ends up gaining considerable time on most others.
Stage 7: Fortunately a sprint, remember him saying he felt realy tired on that day. Sagan wins.
Stage 8: Time Trial to Flumserberg, fulminates the oposition taking stage and yellow from Mathias Frank.

Tour de Suisse 2014
Prologue: 28th, 42 seconds behind Tony Martin and worse than the guys he would end up contending the overall with.
Stage 1: Cam Meyer wins from the break, doesn't look comfortable when Kreuziger puts the hammer down on a cat3.
Stage 2: Sagan Show on a moderate uphill sprint.
Stage 3: Sprint, Cav takes the win.
Stage 4: Sprint, Modolo takes the win.
Stage 5: Weird finale, Trentin takes the win.
Stage 6: Does the TT of his life, finishing third ahead of Cancellara and just behind Dumoulin. TM wins.
Stage 7: Cracks on Verbier, cannot hold to Mollema - Kreuziger combo attack. Chavez wins.
Stage 8: Wins atop Saas-Fee on a great day of cycling after a combined attack 40km's away from the finish alongside Mollema and Mathis Frank, who started the move.

Criterium du Dauphiné 2015
Stage 1: Late attack, Peter Kennaugh wins.
Stage 2: Sprint, Bouhanni wins.
Stage 3 (TTT): Lampre limit their losses.
Stage 4: Sprint, Bouhanni wins.
Stage 5: Pra Loup, bonks completely. Bardet wins.
Stage 6: Goes on a break with Gallopin, Nibali and Valverde, one of the best stages this year, beats them in one of his trademark victories.
Stage 7: Can't recover, is dropped before the final climb and loses his podium place to Beñat Intxausti.
Stage 8: Back on track, does, the way I see it, his best ever climbing effort. Froome wins, Costa gets back his podium place from Intxausti.

Can we assume he can't handle multiple climbing states in a row. We will see in the Tour. Funny enough for these stats, two years ago in France he also won two stages separated from each other by a day, the Alpe d'Huez one inbetween, where he also failed completely.

 

[Parrulo]

The day after doing this:

Col de la Croix Fry
2013:11,3 km@7,1%---29:56---average speed 22.65 km/h(Rui Costa)
---30:49---average speed 22.00 km/h(Quintana-Rodriguez-Contador-Froome-Valverde-Gadret)
2004:11,3 km@7,1%---30:18---average speed 22.38 km/h(Armstrong-Landis-Ullrich-Basso-Kloden)
---30:53---average speed 21.95 km/h(Carlos Sastre)
---31:10---average speed 21.75 km/h(Totschnig-Rasmussen-Merckx-Azevedo-Leipheimer)
---31:55---average speed 21.24 km/h(Vladimir Karpets)
---32:19---average speed 20.98 km/h(Juan Miguel Mercado)
---32:29---average speed 20.87 km/h(Mancebo-Guerini-Pereiro)
---32:32---average speed 20.84 km/h(Pietro Caucchioli)
---34:55---average speed 19.42 km/h(Thomas Voeckler)

He did this:
https://youtu.be/rmGBh0JURTQ?t=1072

When Valverde attacked Costa still looked fresh. I always wondered how far he could have gone that day. I think he might have been able to drop Kreuziger and Contador if he kept going full gas.

Between i don't this his performance this year on stage 7 was a sign of bad recovery. He did better than every other rider that was on the break with him and at least Valverde was definitively trying.

I agree with you on consistency not being his strongest skill, however he has shown signs that he might have it in him to take it to another level.

 

[BigMac]

Ah! I remember that, too bad the forum crashed that day as I was eager to see the reactions on it. On the British Eurosport stream even Sean Kelly was surprised seeing Costa taking that pull. True, it was anticlimatic not being able to see how far could take it.

As far as this year's stage 7 goes, what may have betrayed him was that steep ramp which spent him all out. He's still nowhere on the inclined stuff, but gets better and better on these steady climbs. Take today, he dropped on the steepest part, but came back in when it eased out, and alongside Yates dropped Bardet and Purito who both seemed to be better on the 9% ramp.

 

[TMP402]

Re: Re:

Actually, even in the TdS races he won he was almost always bad/worse in the first few stages. I remember last year he was pretty crappy as well on Crans Montana at the beginning.

I wonder if he'll be ok in the Tour now or still too early in shape and fading in 2nd/3rd week.

...
Stage 5: Weird finale, Trentin takes the win.
...
Can we assume he can't handle multiple climbing states in a row. We will see in the Tour. Funny enough for these stats, two years ago in France he also won two stages separated from each other by a day, the Alpe d'Huez one inbetween, where he also failed completely.

That kind of sums up Trentin's career.

As for Costa in the Dauphine this year, it's amusing that he even failed the day before his win-fail-win formula, like he was preparing for it or something.

 

[BigMac]

Re: Re:

Actually, even in the TdS races he won he was almost always bad/worse in the first few stages. I remember last year he was pretty crappy as well on Crans Montana at the beginning.

I wonder if he'll be ok in the Tour now or still too early in shape and fading in 2nd/3rd week.

...
Stage 5: Weird finale, Trentin takes the win.
...
Can we assume he can't handle multiple climbing states in a row. We will see in the Tour. Funny enough for these stats, two years ago in France he also won two stages separated from each other by a day, the Alpe d'Huez one inbetween, where he also failed completely.

That kind of sums up Trentin's career.

As for Costa in the Dauphine this year, it's amusing that he even failed the day before his win-fail-win formula, like he was preparing for it or something.

That's Trentin winning in Lyon on your avatar, isn't it? I liked that win.

True for Costa.

 

[TMP402]

Re: Re:

Actually, even in the TdS races he won he was almost always bad/worse in the first few stages. I remember last year he was pretty crappy as well on Crans Montana at the beginning.

I wonder if he'll be ok in the Tour now or still too early in shape and fading in 2nd/3rd week.

...
Stage 5: Weird finale, Trentin takes the win.
...
Can we assume he can't handle multiple climbing states in a row. We will see in the Tour. Funny enough for these stats, two years ago in France he also won two stages separated from each other by a day, the Alpe d'Huez one inbetween, where he also failed completely.

That kind of sums up Trentin's career.

As for Costa in the Dauphine this year, it's amusing that he even failed the day before his win-fail-win formula, like he was preparing for it or something.

That's Trentin winning in Lyon on your avatar, isn't it? I liked that win.

True for Costa.

That is indeed Trentin in Lyon. A day which also saw Talansky outsprint Rojas

Edit: and that same year on Stage 1, David Millar sprinted to 4th place, behind only Kittel, Kristoff and van Poppel.

 

[Ricco']

Re: Re:

Actually, even in the TdS races he won he was almost always bad/worse in the first few stages. I remember last year he was pretty crappy as well on Crans Montana at the beginning.

I wonder if he'll be ok in the Tour now or still too early in shape and fading in 2nd/3rd week.

...
Stage 5: Weird finale, Trentin takes the win.
...
Can we assume he can't handle multiple climbing states in a row. We will see in the Tour. Funny enough for these stats, two years ago in France he also won two stages separated from each other by a day, the Alpe d'Huez one inbetween, where he also failed completely.

That kind of sums up Trentin's career.

As for Costa in the Dauphine this year, it's amusing that he even failed the day before his win-fail-win formula, like he was preparing for it or something.

That's Trentin winning in Lyon on your avatar, isn't it? I liked that win.

True for Costa.

That is indeed Trentin in Lyon. A day which also saw Talansky outsprint Rojas

Talansky didn't outsprint Rojas.

Rojas just won the sprint for 4th.

 

[BigMac]

Abandon. Unlucky guy. His left leg never healed from that nasty crash. It would have been better for him to be put out of contention on the road instead of a crash. I'm afraid this way he will try again next year.

 

[BigMac]

Already received the exam results: Besides the crash that affected him he had gastroenteritis, hypoglycemia and both kidneys highly inflamed. Got back to training two days ago, don't expect big things in San Sebastian.

 

[MikeTichondrius]

Already received the exam results: Besides the crash that affected him he had gastroenteritis, hypoglycemia and both kidneys highly inflamed. Got back to training two days ago, don't expect big things in San Sebastian.

Wow, nasty. Really a shame. I figure he could have done something on Gap again or the stage into Maurienne.

 

[BigMac]

Already received the exam results: Besides the crash that affected him he had gastroenteritis, hypoglycemia and both kidneys highly inflamed. Got back to training two days ago, don't expect big things in San Sebastian.

Wow, nasty. Really a shame. I figure he could have done something on Gap again or the stage into Maurienne.

Pretty much me feelings too.

 

[Echoes]

Me feelings is that we shouldn't care what he could have done, which we would never know anyway and focus on what he could do next. That sure is how he must be feeling right now... As much as he has excessively focused on GT's these last few years, he probably does not as much as the fans do...

 

[BigMac]

Costa will be a dad. From his facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/RuiAlbertoFariaCosta/posts/992970477420769

Even has a champion's name.

 

[Billie]

Any idea whats Rui's schedule is like for rest of the season? WT classics and Trittico Lombardo to prepare for WC I suppose?