Rui Costa Wins the Portuguese Championship

 

Dauphiné: Pogačar 3rd in Megève and 4th in the final classification; De La Cruz best climber

 

Success for Rui Costa in the Portuguese Championships. The UAE Team Emirates rider has been crowned national road champion for the second time in his career, beating Daniel Mestre (W52 / Fc Porto) after a long and hard-fought sprint.

 

Rui Costa was able to count on the support of teammates Rui and Ivo Oliveira who finished 16th and 17th respectively. 

 

Rui Costa: “It was a very special victory. Rui and Ivo Oliveira rode out of their skin for me today. They both worked hard on the front when it was necessary and got in the right moves. To win here in Portugal is complicated when you have teams with big numbers against us but we worked it out perfectly between in the end. I put in a really hard attack in the final kick and I was happy to finish it off in the sprint.

This weekend has been a huge success for the team, with Ivo winning the TT and me the road race, it couldn’t have gone any better.”

 

This victory is the second of the season for Rui Costa, after winning the first stage of the Saudi Tour in February. 

 

Results

1. Rui Costa (UAE Team Emirates) 4:04:05

2. Daniel Mestre (W52 / FC Porto) s.t.

3. Francisco Campos (W52 / FC Porto) @ 28 ”

 

 

In France, it was UAE Team Emirates starlet Tadej Pogačar who animated the final stage of the Criterium du Dauphiné from Megève-Megève (153.5 km) with 8 climbs and an uphill finish.

 

The Slovenian went on the attack 27 km from the finish, in a select group of 4 riders including Sepp Kuss (Jumbo-Visma), Pavel Sivakov (Ineos) and Daniel Martinez (EF). The UAE Team Emirates rider crossed the line in 3rd position 30“ behind the winner Kuss, managing to climb up to 4th place in the general classification, 56” behind Martinez.

 

Pogačar: “The race had a very high pace from the first climb to the finish. Today I was doing well and I managed to put in a good performance, also thanks to the support of my teammates, who helped me throughout the Dauphiné. In the final I was fine, but the other riders were also pushing hard with me leading the race. I followed Martinez and I got a good result”.

 

Teammate Davide De La Cruz, the best climber of the race won the mountains classification with 68 points, beating Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-QuickStep) by 16 points.

 

Stage 5 results

1. Sepp Kuss (Jumbo-Visma) 3:58:39

2. Daniel Martinez (EF) @ 27 ”

3. Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) @ 30 “

 

Final general classification

1. Daniel Martinez (EF) 21:44:58

2. Thibau Pinot (Groupama-FDJ) @ 29 ”

3. Guillaume Martin (Cofidis) @ 41 ”

4. Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) 56 “