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Samson777 said:Picture give you the impression of Neymar and a random fan But still, Rui Costa is a hell of football name
trevim said:
Rui Costa and a random fan
(For those who don't follow football, Neymar, Barcelona's player.)
jens_attacks said:it's the saitama criterium organized by the tour de france's organizers
and yes it will be broadcasted live on eurosport.
Parrulo said:he is good on cobbles
Jux1893 said: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 said: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.
hrotha said:Wait wait wait.
UNZUE wanted one of his riders to focus on the cobbles?
Parrulo said: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 said:I always assumed that was just Unzue using his youngsters as classics filler.
jens_attacks said:thought they were smarter, didn't read the link, sorry
but yes saitama is like the tour de france
froomey wins.