Rui Costa was the big loser in today's stage 11 of the Tour de France as the world champion was unable to keep up with the best on the final climb. Having lost 1.36 to his main rivals, he has been diagnosed with bronchitis and now hopes to recover in time for the mountain stages.

Going into today's stage, Rui Costa was sitting in 9th in the overall standings of the Tour de France. However, the world champion lost ground on the final climb and dropped to 14th after having lost 1.36 to his main rivals.

Having suffered from breathing problems, Costa has now been diagnosed with bronchitis.

"Obviously, I'm not satisfied for my performance," he said. "I suffered from the start and I thought the reason was the temperature increase after days with cold temperature and rain.

"After the stage, the team doctor visited me and I understood I'm suffering from bronchitis. I hope I'll be able to recover soon so that I have the chance to repay the support of the team and of my teammates that today were great in helping me during the worse moments in order to limit my losses."
 

Lampre-Merida's second captain Chris Horner finished with best riders but he had a bad day too.

"Today I didn't have the beest feelings,"he said. "Nonetheless I managed to finish with the best group. Since I knew I was not so competitive on the climbs, I focused my attention on doing the descents in the front positions, so that I could rely on a small advantage on the hills."