Rui Costa 2nd at Tour de Suisse

Rui Costa came agonisingly close to claiming victory on stage 6 of the Tour de Suisse.

Costa, a three time former champion of the race, was first to cross the line at the finish in Disentis-Sedrun but after some discussion by the race jury he was later relegated to 2nd place after making a slight deviation of his position in the final metres.

 
It was a relatively short stage through the Swiss Alps at 130.1km between Andermatt and Disentis – Sedrun. The riders climbed the Gotthard Pass – 8.5km at 7.2 per cent – before tackling the Lukmanier Pass – 18km at 5.6 per cent.

After many attacks a large break of 42 riders went clear including several UAE Team Emirates riders, among them Ryan Gibbons, Marc Hirschi, David De La Cruz and Rui Costa.

De La Cruz hit out early from the group, cresting the penultimate climb with close to a minute on the pursuers. The front of the race came back together with Costa going clear with stage winner Andreas Kron (Lotto-Soudal) and Hermann Pernsteiner (Bahrain-Victorious), with the three disputing the final sprint.

Rui Costa: “I’m sorry for the decision of the jury but I need to accept it. Obviously I’m disappointed with the outcome. We did a great ride today as a team but the only thing we can do now is to focus and put our energy into the days to come.”

The former World Champion now sits in 10th place on GC at 3’37’’ off the lead of Richard Carapaz (Ineos-Grenadiers).

 
Stage 7 will be a test against the clock with an individual time-trial from Disentis Sedrun to Andermatt (23.2km).
Stage 6 results

1.Andreas Kron (Lotto-Soudal) 3:14:52
2.Rui Costa (UAE Team Emirates) s.t
3.Hermann Pernsteiner (Bahrain-Victorious) +1’’

General Classification after stage 6

1.Richard Carapaz (Ineos-Grenadiers) 20:00:31
2.Jakob Fuglsang (Astana Premier-Tech) +26’’
3.Maximiliann Shachmann (Bora-Hansgrohe) +38’’
10. Rui Costa (UAE Team Emirates) +3’37’’