Rui Costa continued his love story with Switzerland when he finished 3rd overall in the Tour de Remandie for the third year in a row after coming out on top in a very close battle for the final spot on the podium.  Having entered the race with doubt due to pain in his shoulder, the world champion described the result as a victory for him.

For some reason, Rui Costa always excels on Swiss soil. In the past two seasons he has finished 3rd in the Tour de Romandie and won the Tour de Suisse overall and todya he continued the trend by making it three in a row in the former race.

Costa was never in contention for the win as Simon Spilak and Chris Froome proved their superiority in the queen stage but that didn't put a dampener on the world champion's joy. Having entered the race with a lot of doubts and pain in his shoulder after crashing out of Paris-Nice, the results was almost like a victory for the Portuguese.

"Before this Tour de Romandie, I was in doubt whether I should start or not as I had a damaged the ligaments in my shoulder," he wrote on his website. "I decided to take the risk and try to overcome the pain. Was it worth it? No doubt and I am very happy.

"Honestly, I was afraid that I would lose this third place but I gritted my teeth and left everything on the road.  I tried my best and even if I had lost my podium spot, I would have been pleased because I couldn't have done any more. This third place feels like a victory for me even more because the time trial position was really unpleasant due to my shoulder injury.

"I was 8th in the time trial, 31 seconds behind Chris Froome who won the stage and the overall. Now I have a few days of rest and I will only return to competition next month. That will be nice, especially for my shoulder."

"Rui started the Ascona prologue with intense pain in his shoulder," sports director Joxean Fernandez Matxin said. "In the other stages he had to stop when he needed warmer clothes as he couldn't raise his arm because of the shoulder pain. You can imagine how difficult it was for him to race in these conditions, but Rui is tenacious and his legs were very good, so he could achieve this important goal."