On September 29, it will be a decade since that cruel outcome. Purito Rodríguez's tears on the podium at the World Cup in Florence were inconsolable. Next to him, Rui Costa, the Portuguese who came from behind and deprived him of the glory of the rainbow when the man from Parets is already caressing success. Ten years and a hundred battles have passed but Rui Costa is still an ace in the art of taking his rivals to the brink of a nervous breakdown and ending up raising their arms.
He continues to take advantage of his cold blood. He did well again, saving his strength, giving few relays and trusting in his top speed. This time the German Kämna and the Colombian Buitrago verified it in Lekunberri, partners in a breakaway in which Evenepoel once again got involved, for the second day in a row, who brazenly like no other stands in the breakaway in search of a second consecutive victory. At the moment of truth, the previous day's display weighs on him.
The Soudal team leader has not won any of the two grand tours he set out to do but he has managed to lead them both and does anyone dare to say that a rider who has won two stages in the Giro, two stages, has not had a good year? in the Vuelta at the moment – are you looking forward to more –, two more in the Volta, has he won a monument like Liege, in addition to the San Sebastián Classic, and was he champion of the world time trial and of his country online? His drive is missing in others who still remain in the top-10.
The Belgian noticed the fatigue and could not enter the fight when Buitrago, a pure climber who already knows what it is to succeed on the Giro mountain, attacked in Zuarrarrate. Rui Costa did know how to suffer to connect but in no way does he want to collaborate when the Colombian asks him to. That parsimony allowed us to reach Kämna, winner of the Collado de la Cruz de Caravaca, who took risks on the descent and fell.
Buitrago and Rui Costa stayed again and again the same scene, the same conversation. “I told him to help me because he knew he was going to beat me in the sprint. “I didn't want a sprint with five runners,” Buitrago tried to convince him. And the Portuguese in his thirteenth. No. Before the break, Kämna catches them again. And Rui Costa, calm down.
The German is the first to launch the sprint, already on the last straight. And then Rui Costa activates, aware that it is the key moment, and he gets on the wheel to overtake him in the last few meters and win his first stage in the Vuelta, at 36 years old, about to be 37.
“People said that Rui can't take it anymore, that Rui is tired and Rui is old. But this is proof that experience is useful and that you have to be calm,” says the winner to those who wanted to retire him now. He had not won in a major event since the 2013 Tour as well, but ten years later Rui Costa dominates nervous finishes like few others.
