Joxean Matxin praises ex-UAE rider Rui Costa: "Many may label him as selfish or ambitious, but he gave his soul for his colleagues every time I asked him to"

Portuguese EF Education-EasyPost rider Rui Costa gave an interview some time ago to Relevo where he spoke openly about a pertinent topic. In that interview, he spoke of the calm with which he faced the race whenever he was part of a breakaway and that the nicknames given to him in the peloton didn't affect him or the way he raced.

Now 38, he admitted that he sees things differently and that when he joins a breakaway it's to work, as he said. "It's true that in recent years something has changed. I enter a breakaway and I'm aware that I have to work like everyone else, because otherwise it's not worth it." Wout van Aert and Neilson Powless (currently his teammate) even said that they would never want to get into a breakaway with Rui Costa at a time.

Luis Léon Sánchez, on the other hand, is of a different opinion: "He was the typical young man with his eyes wide open, who paid attention to everything." Sánchez was Costa's teammate at Caisse d'Épargne, now Movistar Team, where Rui Costa entered as an apprentice and left as World Champion.

"He knew what he wanted and what was convenient for him at all times to win a world championship even if he wasn't a climber or a puncheur or a sprinter," recalls the Spanish cyclist, saying that what gave him a bad name were the facts that "he made ugly faces, saying he was dead, hiding... and yet he was always in contention for victories. He's intelligent."

Joxean Matxin saw above-average qualities in him and signed him for Lampre-Merida, now UAE Team Emirates, without thinking twice: "He's a cyclist who knows how to give 120% of his abilities. Working with him has been a pleasure, because he's a professional and grateful man," continues the UAE's DS, who guided the Portuguese cyclist for six years.

"Many may label him as selfish or too ambitious, and yet he gave his soul for his teammates every time I asked him to. In the 2021 Tour de France, he was on a winning breakaway and stopped to wait for Tadej Pogacar and help him," he recalls. "He's one of the happiest cyclists I've ever seen on the Champs Elysees celebrating a teammate's victory."

Regarding Rui Costa's bad reputation in the peloton, Matxin defends Rui Costa: "He knows how to be patient and even generate the anger that a cyclist needs to win. The clearest example of this is the stage he won last year at the Vuelta a Espana. He arrived with Buitrago, who didn't give him a moment's rest. I probably would have said to him: 'I've won a lot of races. Winning a stage in the Vuelta doesn't change anything in my career.'"

Rui Costa even commented on the episode that took place during this stage of Vuelta: "But how did Buitrago want me to take over if he pushed me to the limit? Buitrago's tactic was to leave me behind and my tactic was to stay on his wheel. I had to play my game. His directors said he had to unload me, because then in the sprint they already knew what was going to happen..."

Article written by Carlos Silva.