INTERVIEW | Rui Costa on ambitions for Vuelta a Espana, Portugal's Olympic Gold and hopes on João Almeida

Rui Costa is starting his 18th Grand Tour and he reveals that his main ambitions will be to support EF Education-EasyPost's pursuit of the red jersey with Richard Carapaz. Costa is one of the three Portuguese riders having a home start at this Vuelta, something that is happening for the first time in his 18-year long career.

"The main objective, as I said before, is to be with Richard Carapaz and give our all. If an opportunity arises Rigoberto [Urán], myself and other teammates who are here are focused and can win a stage," the veteran told CyclingUpToDate in a pre-race press conference. "When we are working for others, we always give more of ourselves. When that is not the case, we sometimes slow down for two days. But when we have a [collective] goal, it is sometimes difficult to set a personal goal, and that means that sometimes an opportunity arises, but we cannot always do it that way. We will focus on helping Richard."

The Ecuadorian had a strong Tour de France but in the high mountains he lacked over the opening week of the race. In the yellow jersey after stage 3, he made history for his country but lost it the following day. However he bounced back in form over the second half of the race and won a stage, alongside conquering the KOM classification. In Spain, he will aim for a result in the overall classification.

Costa's compatriot João Almeida starts off as one of the biggest favourites, and he believes the UAE Team Emirates rider may be able to win the first Grand Tour for the country. "I believe so. João has already shown that he is very strong in the Tour de France, where he finished fourth, in the fight for the podium, despite working for the team with Tadej Pogacar. He is one of the team leaders, like [Adam] Yates, and I believe he can do very well. João has everything he needs to finish on the podium in the Vuelta a España. That would have been difficult in the Tour, but I think it is possible here."

That would be history for Portugal, the country that hosts the foreign start in this race, and would come right after another bit of history as Portugal just achieved it's first gold medal in cycling with Rui Oliveira and Iuri Leitão at the men's Madison. This has been a massive topic in the country and has increased the attention in this race.

"It was a spectacular gold medal. I believe it will be valuable for the whole sport. It was a truly historic moment. Both Iuri and Rui achieved something historic in cycling today, something that is an asset for all of us, for all those who are cyclists," he said.

"A boost for national cycling. I really hope that the federation continues to do a great job, that it can continue with Iuri and Rui with the goal of improving cycling, the conditions and believing that it is possible to continue with great achievements... It is a great, extraordinary achievement. They were confident that they could achieve a great result, and they brought home two gold medals, bringing joy to all those who follow because we are extremely proud. The truth is that it was an asset for cycling, believing that this achievement of theirs will bring positive things for the future," Costa concluded.