Rui Costa is one of the riders in the peloton who doesn’t win prolifically, but when he does, he wins big. He is a master of attacks and can escape in the final of Amstel Gold, he will be aided by a tailwind on the Cauberg to win.

“When you have Rui Costa in the team you know that you are here for the victory,” Lampre-Merida directeur sportif Philippe Mauduit told Cyclingnews. “Last week he was back in competition at the Vuelta al Pais Vasco and he did his best performance of his career there so we are pretty confident and he is pretty confident too.”

While Amstel Gold isn’t a happy hunting ground for Costa, as shown by his best ever finish of 17th last year, the Portuguese former World Champion can mastermind attacks similar to the one pulled off in 2013 by Roman Kreuziger. Mauduit hinted at an attack like this.

“If it’s a bit chaotic then you can probably try way before the finish. It always depends on how many riders each of the teams have in the last hour of racing,” explained Mauduit. “If you have some teams with a lot of riders then you know that they will be able to work hard. If all the teams have only one or two riders then we can play more with the tactics.”

“We are not the strongest favourites we are outsiders. We have to be clever and we have to look carefully how the race will develop because we need a hard race for him. He cannot wait for a sprint.”

“It’s important to try and adapt your tactic to one of the major teams. If they’re riding hard then we need to be a bit more conservative and if they’re not riding hard then we need to make it harder,” Mauduit said.