Rui Costa wins the Portuguese championship

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, preceding Daniel Mestre (W52 / Fc Porto) at the end of a long and hard-fought sprint.

The race was held in Paredes over a distance of 164 km. Rui Costa was able to count on the support of teammates Ivo and Rui Oliveira (who finished 17th and 16th at the finish). Costa arrived to the final straight in the company of Mestre, challenging him to the sprint for the victory for the Portuguese champion jersey.

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.”

For Rui Costa, today’s victory is the second victory of the season, after the one obtained in February in the first stage of the Saudi Tour.
On Friday the UAE Team Emirates rider finished second in the time trial, beaten by team mate Ivo Oliveira.

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 ”

Photo Credits: João Fonseca

In France, it was 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 from UAE Team Emirates went on the attack 27 km from the finish, in a select group of 4 riders. Former race leader Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) was not at the start today due to the after-effects of a fall occurred yesterday.

Pogačar was joined by Sepp Kuss (Jumbo-Visma), later winner of the stage, Pavel Sivakov (Ineos) and Daniel Martinez (EF), winner in the final classification. The UAE Team Emirates rider crossed the line in 3rd position at 30 “behind the winner Kuss, managing to climb up to 4th place in the general classification, at 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”.

David De La Cruz, the best climber of the race won the mountains classification with 68 points, he preceded 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 “