Portuguese World Champion Rui Costa successfully defends fifth place in final audition before Tour de France United Arab Emirates. Tuesday, 20 June 2017: The 2017 Tour de Suisse concluded on Sunday with Portuguese World Champion and three-time Tour de Suisse winner, Rui Costa defending his fifth place in the overall General Classification. Following a good performance at Tour de Suisse, UAE Team Emirates will now look ahead to its goals for Tour de France, which is less than two weeks away. Commenting on the results of the race the Portuguese UAE Team Emirates’ rider said: “My goal was to finish the race in the top five and I’ve achieved what I set out to do. However it was a gruelling race and I can’t say it was easy because even though I started strong at the beginning of the race I was exhausted towards the end. I joined the Tour de Suisse directly off the back of the Giro d’Italia where a lot of my energy was spent. All in all I am quite happy with the result. I’m looking forward to the Tour of Poland and the third and final Grand Tour of the season the Vuelta a España.” Commenting on the team’s overall performance in the race, UAE Team Emirates’ Sports Director Simone Pedrazzini said: “The performance of the team was good and Rui and the team worked relentlessly to achieve the goals we had coming into the race. The team is in good form ahead of the Tour de France and we can confidently look ahead to new ambitious goals.” Elsewhere in Europe, UAE Team Emirates’ Roberto Ferrari finished fifth in the final stage of the Tour of Slovenia with Bennet Sam (Bora - Hansgrohe) in first place while teammates Edward Ravasi and Jan Polanc placed tenth and 14th respectively in the GC. Rafal Majka (Bora-Hansgrohe) sealed the overall General Classification. Top Three Race Results for Stage Nine | 1 | Rohan Dennis (BMC Racing Team) | 00:36:30 | | 2 | Stefan Küng (BMC Racing Team) | 00:00:29 | | 3 | Damiano Caruso (BMC Racing Team) | 00:00:47 | | 14 | Valerio Conti (UAE Team Emirates) | 00:01:16 | | 17 | Rui Costa (UAE Team Emirates) | 00:01:25 | Final General Classification | 1 | Simon Spilak (Katusha-Alpecin) | 28:37:11 | | 2 | Damiano Caruso (BMC Racing Team) | 0:00:48 | | 3 | Steven Kruijswijk (Team LottoNl-Jumbo) | 0:01:08 | | 5 | Rui Costa (UAE Team Emirates) | 00:03:09 |
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