For the second day in a row, Rui Costa finished 2nd in a stage of the Volta ao Algarve when he won the sprint of the chasers behind Michal Kwiatkowski in today's second stage of the Volta ao Algarve. The world champion was disappointed to miss out on a big win on home soil but admitted that his Polish rival had been too strong.

People are talking about the curse of the rainbow jersey and after finishing 2nd for the second consecutive day, world champion Rui Costa may start believing that it is not all nonsense. Today he got very close to his first win in the prestigious jersey when the Volta ao Algarve hit the mountains.

Costa was up for the challenge and signaled his intentions right from the beginning when he used teammates Maximilano Richeze and Roberto Ferrari to reel in an early break. Later Nelson Oliveira and Jan Polanc ramped up the pace, setting the scene for Costa to kick into action on the final climb.

Chris Horner whittled down the front group to a select few but it wasn't to be for the world champion who was unable to respond to Michal Kwiatkowski when he attacked near the summit. Costa joined forces with Alberto Contador and Eduard Prades to form a chasing trio but they never regained contact with the leader.

Costa easily won the sprint for 2nd and is also 2nd on GC, 4 seconds behind Kwiatkowski.

"I would have loved to win," he said. We aimed at success and my teammates have worked to help me achieve the goal. I think we've done everything possible to get the result, but Kwiatowski was very good. I congratulate him.

"I'm still satisfied. The legs have given very good feedback, and my morale increases when I can see that I have a good condition. It allows me to tackle the coming races with more conviction. The team did very well and the group is very united."

Tomorrow Costa faces the 13.6km time trial and he knows that he is likely to lose time to Kwiatkowski who is known as a strong time trialist.

"Being second overall gives mes a good feeling," he said. "I knew that Kwiatkowski was very strong. Four seconds is not much but Kwiatkowski is a great time trialist. Tomorrow will be a good test for me."

Sports director Joxean Fernandez Matxin praised the team effort that had prepared Costa's good result.

 "Today, the team worked very well, in the sense that we have a group that can handle all different races," he said. "Rui feels good and did a good race but Kwiatkowski had a big day. The Pole is a good time trialist but I am sure that Rui will make a good performance."

You can read our preview of the race here.