Third place for alert Rui Costa

After the good performance in the prologue (10th place), Rui Costa scored another good result, placing third in Tour de Romandie’s stage one, 168.4 km from Neuchatel to La Chaux de Fonds. The ride saw him climb to second place overall behind leader Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma).

An intense final saw 20 major riders, with Costa from UAE Team Emirates, move free on the last climb on the stage, located less than 5km from the finish line. A counter-attack by Ilnur Zakarin (Katusha-Alpecin) was marked by Geraint Thomas (Team Ineos), who launched his move in the last kilometre along with Carlos Betancur (Movistar).
Thomas and Betancur were pulled back and the race ended with a narrow sprint of 20, with Costa just behind winner Roglic and David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ). He now sits just 10 seconds off the lead.

“I am satisfied with today’s result that came by battling with high-level riders,” Costa said. “I tried to make the most of the good work done by my team-mates, who were very alert and kept me protected the whole stage. I immediately saw that the stretches over the last five kilometres would give life to a decisive action, and so it was. In the sprint, I gave my best, but Roglic was very fast. Still, I take a lot of morale from the first two days of the Tour de Romandie.”

The second stage of the Tour de Romandie will start from Le Locle and after 174.4 km and a second category climb, end in Morges. It should suit the sprinters.

Stage 1 results:
1 Primoz Roglic (Slo) Team Jumbo Visma 4h15’18 ”
2 David Gaudu (Fra) Groupama-FDJ s.t.
3 Rui Costa (Por) UAE Team Emirates s.t.

General classification after Stage 1:
1 Primoz Roglic (Slo) Team Jumbo Visma 4h20’15 ”
2 Rui Costa (Por) UAE Team Emirates 10″
3 David Gaudu (Fra) Groupama-FDJ 12 “