Rui Costa obtained a place in the top 10 of the Vuelta al Pais Vasco thanks to a very good performance in the final time trial. The Portuguese rider covered the Aia course (18,3km, the first part downhil, the second part with two short but demanding climbs) in 29'20" at an average speed of 37,432 km/h, 34" more than winner Dumoulin, good enough for the 8th place.

With the performance, Costa entered the top 10 of the final general classification. He was 7th at 1'14" from Rodriguez.

"I'm very happy with the 7th place in the overall classification of the Vuelta al Pais Vasco, which is a race in which I always made huge efforts," Rui Costa explained. "This year's edition was particularly demanding and the level of the opponents was so high. I had to face difficult moments but I did not give up and, thanks to the support of the team and of my teammates, I succeeded in obtaining this result, the best I could expect."

Sport director Philippe Mauduit, who received the support of his colleague Marco Marzano, confirmed the assesment: "The result Rui achieved is very good for him and for the team. The value of the 7th place is even higher if we consider that there were a bunch of top riders and that the course was very suitable for light riders

"Rui was great to never give up and to fully exploit the great work that the his teammates did. We also got Diego Ulissi back. He was a little affected by the crash in the early stages, and we received interesting confirmations by Polanc."