BEHIND THE SCENES #1 RUI COSTA
A HAT TRICK AT THE GENERAL REHEARSAL FOR THE TOUR The Tour de France is more than a bicycle race: It’s a myth and generally regarded as the most important race of the season. After joining TEAM LAMPRE-MERIDA, world champion Rui Costa is going to compete at the Tour de France as the team’s captain for the first time, riding for the overall. The general rehearsal in Switzerland was very promising. Being successful at the Tour de Suisse was of particular importance for world champion Rui Costa this year, and that’s for various reasons. First of all, despite strong performances at Paris-Nice, the Volta aõ Algarve and the Tour de Romandie, Rui Costa was still without a race win in the rainbow jersey and riding for TEAM LAMPRE-MERIDA in mid-June. On another note Costa had won this stage race’s overall classification for the last two years. And finally, featuring 9 stages, two individual time trials and three tough mountain stages, the Tour de Suisse was the last test of form heading for the Tour de France. MERIDA set out to optimise Rui Costa’s bicycle to the finest details ahead of the season’s highlights. The goal when creating the REACTO KOM was clear: The aero road bike REACTO was to get lighter in order to exactly meet the world cycling federation UCI’s minimum weight requirement of 15 pounds (6.8 kg). This goal has been achieved, with key contributions coming from suppliers of the team such as Fulcrum, Elite and FSA/Vision. On top of that, a lot of effort was invested in improving both the efficiency and the aerodynamics of Rui’s position on the road bike and on the WARP TT time trial bike. In doing so, he was closely assisted by Jürgen Falke, MERIDA’s head of R&D. After a cautious start Rui Costa and his team mates of TEAM LAMPRE-MERIDA rode a very attentive race, moving up in the general classification bit by bit. Finishing in an excellent third place in the race’s second and longer time trial, the world champion kept himself within reach of the overall leader, and on the final day Rui Costa went all in. He attacked on the penultimate climb of the race, and on the final ascent up to Saas Fee the world champion rode away from his competitors and to the first win of his season, gaining plenty of time to win his third con secutive Tour de Suisse as well. This win was also a triumph for all of his team mates, the team’s directors, the mechanics and the physios. By winning his third consecutive Tour de Suisse Rui Costa has rewritten cycling’s history, and that’s not all. The world champion showed his class and his mental strength, he broke the curse of the rainbow jersey and thus the general rehearsal for the Tour de France can be considered a full success. We are looking forward to the tree most exciting weeks of the cycling season. And we’re keeping our fingers crossed for Rui Costa at the Tour de France.
MORE SUCCESS. MORE BIKE. You can’t enforce success in sports. But you can make sure that an athlete gets the best-possible surrounding so he feels at ease and can fully focus on the tasks at hand. And of course you can supply athletes with the best equipment to get their job done. Despite a series of very strong results, world champion Rui Costa had to wait until June to celebrate his first win riding for TEAM LAMPRE-MERIDA. Thus the joy about his third consecutive overall victory at the Tour de Suisse and his stage win is all the bigger. Even more so as MERIDA has made a great effort beforehand to ease the way to success, knocking a full pound (450 grams) off the regular REACTO EVO to create the one-off REACTO KOM and optimizing Rui Costa’s position on both his regular road bike and the WARP TT time trial bike. The next race for Rui Costa is the Tour de France, where he’ll be racing for his own ambitions rather than being a key domestique for the first time. As his performances at the Tour de Suisse have shown, the Portuguese rider is ready to make this step in his career. At MERIDA we’re keeping our fingers crossed – may the three most beautiful weeks of each cycling summer begin!
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