Kim Ludbrook / EPA
Portuguese cyclist Rui Costa at the 2015 Tour de France
The only Portuguese long-distance world champion cyclist, he is one of the best Portuguese cyclists ever. “I was blessed to live my dream”, he wrote, aged 39, 33 triumphs later.
Rui Costathe only Portuguese long-distance world champion cyclist, announced this Friday his retirement at the age of 39, 33 triumphs later.
Coming Out “blessed” for having lived a dream that led him to win three stages in the Tour de France, the EF Education-EasyPost cyclist announced his farewell in a post on the social network Instagram and Facebook.
“The time has come to retire. To enjoy the company of my loved ones, to be present in the small, big moments and to calmly live what was so often postponed. I was blessed to live my dream, to win, to fall and get up, and to always have my little guardian angel with me at every bend in the road”, wrote the 39-year-old Poveiro.
World elite long-distance champion in 2013, Rui Costa is one of the best Portuguese cyclists of all time, with 33 triumphs on his CV, three of which were in Tour stages (2011 and 2013).
Winner of a stage in the Vuelta2023 (2023), he also won three editions of the Tour of Switzerland (2012, 2013 and 2014), in which he won five stages (2010, 2012, 2013, 2014), and winner of the Tour of Abu Dhabi (2017), as well as several national road champion titles.
