World champion Rui Costa (Lampre-Merida) struggled with a mechanical on course today(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
World champion Rui Costa (Lampre-Merida)(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
World champion Rui Costa (Lampre)(Image credit: Bettini Photo)
Rui Costa (Lampre-Merida) lost some ground on his general classification rivals after a mechanical problem on the final climb of stage 8 of the Tour de France. The Portuguese rider looked strong and had been able to stick with the main group of favourites on the climb to Gérardmer La Mauselaine, but found his bike lacking when the attacks started coming.
Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo) finally made his move but could only manage to take two seconds back on the yellow jersey. While Nibali holds a substantial margin on the rest, Costa thinks it will be a close-run battle to Paris.
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Born in Ireland to a cycling family and later moved to the Isle of Man, so there was no surprise when I got into the sport. Studied sports journalism at university before going on to do a Masters in sports broadcast. After university I spent three months interning at Eurosport, where I covered the Tour de France. In 2012 I started at Procycling Magazine, before becoming the deputy editor of Procycling Week. I then joined Cyclingnews, in December 2013.
