Rui Costa to target Tour de France in 2014
New world champion will be GC leader🍌 at Lampre-Merida
New world champion 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Rui Costa will target the general classification at the 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Tour de France when 🐠he joins Lampre-Merida next season, aౠccording to manager Giuseppe Saronni.
Although Rui Costa claimed two stage victories at this year’s Tour, he also sacrificed his overall ambitions by dropping back to help his Movistar leader Alejandro🐲 Valverde when he suffered mechanical problems on stage 13.
After claiming successive overall victories at the Tour de Suisse in the past two seasons, the 26-year-old is determined to test his capabilities over the three weeks of a Grand Tour. Rui Costa’s best Grand Tour result to date is 18th at the 2012 Tour de France,😼 where he rode largely in support of Valverde.
“With us, he wa🧔nts to do try and do the Tour de France as a leader. Not for stages but to do a good general classification. He was a bit restricted at Movistar,” Saronni told . “The idea is this: to bring Rui Costa into the record books of the Tour in the Lampre jersey. He’s a complete rider and he’ll also be a protagonist in the Ardennes classics, for instance.”
Lampre-Merida opened negotiations witಌh Rui Costa immediately after this year’s Tour de France, and Saronni acknowledged that his haul of UCI points made him a particulꦑarly attractive proposition at that stage.
“Up to that point, the team hadn’t shone and👍 we need to gain some sporting merit points to be sure to get into the WorldTour,” Saronni said. “We had indications that the boy was out of contract at the end of the season and he wanted to go to a team that would give him different competitive experiences.”
Rui Costa opted to sign just a one-year contract with Lampre-Merida, saying in August, “The easiest thing i𓆏s just to sign for three years because you’re guaranteed a good contract and it takes pressure off you, but I don’t agree with that mentality.”
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Gazzetta dello Sport reports that Rui Costa’s contract with Lampre is wo✨rth €1 million, and Saronni hinted that the deal might be revised following his world championship victory. “He’s signed for a year with us, but we had already agreed that we would take about it again in the spring. As for a bonus, let’s say that the world title adds value to the athlete’s image, but also to the team that he rides for.”
