Rui Costa on his expectations for the Tour de France: "I'll do my best to win a stage"

Last weekend in Santa Maria da Feira, the Portuguese men's elite national road championship was contested, with Rui Costa beating Rui Oliveira in a sprint finish on the hard cobbles that led the cyclists to the finish line near the Feirense Castle.

After the race, Rui Costa gave his usual summary of the race that had just crowned him National Champion for the third time: "The National Championship isn't easy, it's a very open race and everyone dreams of the title. UAE Team Emirates had three men and I knew that to win I had to race against them," said Costa, continuing, "I was racing alone for the first time. When I won in 2015 in Braga, I had Nelson Oliveira with me, in 2020 in Paredes, I had the Oliveira brothers. This time they were my biggest opponents."

As he admitted in an interview with O Jogo, it was complicated for him to race against Ivo and Rui Oliveira, as they were teammates at UAE Team Emirates for five long years. "I'd already been their opponent on the outside, but that hardly counts, because everyone does their own thing. This was the first time we'd met directly. A good rivalry, but a strange one for me. I like them a lot, so it was bittersweet for me to beat Rui Oliveira."

One day after winning the national championship, Rui Costa had another joy. He was called up by his team, EF Education - Easy Post, for the 2024 Tour de France, which will be the 17th Grand Tour of his career, even though the year got off to a bad start with a fall in the Volta ao Algarve that forced him to stop for four months. "It's been a bad year because of the crash. It ruined the first phase of the season and I've spent the last few months focused on recovering."

He took part in the Tour de Suisse, which he has won three times in the past, to get back in touch with the peloton, put the number on his back and gain some competitive rhythm: "I had to spend the Tour de Suisse adapting to the pace of competition and some stages took a lot out of me," he recalls. "By the end I was feeling a lot better and the national title was a great boost," he said.

The cyclist recalls the words he said after the race in Santa Maria da Feira to put himself in context "I said in Feira that there are good things to come. I'm fine, but above all I feel I can still improve. As I said, it feels like I'm starting the season in June." continuing " I'm going to the Tour with 10 days of racing in my legs," he said, "I'm counting on going to the Tour of Spain, which will come after the Tour de France. In between there are the Olympic Games. It's a lot and it's all in a row, but I feel like I'm starting the season," he recalls.

This is his first year at EF Education- Easy Post and 37-year-old Costa is going into his 12th Tour with a special jersey on his body. "It will be an honor for me to wear the colors of Portugal in the Tour. Ever since I joined the team I've always wanted to have the Portuguese flag on my jersey, it was one of my ambitions this year." he said of his ambitions for this year.

EF Education - Easy Post has Richard Carapaz as its leader for the Tour de France and will be joined by the likes of Alberto Bettiol, Neilson Powless, Ben Healy, Sean Quinn, Stefan Bissegger and Marijn van den Berg: "The team looks strong and there are a lot of stages for us. That will be our focus, going for stages. I think we'll win," saying that he's going to France, but that "I need a few more days to get better," ending with his characteristic words: "I'm very grateful that the team believes in me. I'll do my best to fight for a stage."