Da Costa caps off quality season

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Rock Racing's Oscar Sevilla took the overall lead at the Vuelta a Chihuahua after a testing stage from Creel to Guachochi split the classification and delivered the Spanish climber into the green jersey with three days remaining.

Portuguese rider Rui Costa (Caisse d'Epargne) secured line honours and moved into third overall while Gregorio Ladino (Tecos), Sevilla and Dario Cioni (ISD) rounded out the quartet that finished more than seven minutes ahead of the main bunch.

American rider Matthew Busche is now 'best of the rest' in fifth, 4:42 behind Cioni on general classification, while the chances of overall victory for defending champion Francisco Mancebo and the returning Michael Rasmussen seem very slim, sitting in sixth and seventh overall respectively - each over seven minutes in arrears.

"I am really happy I won my third race this year on an occasion such as this difficult race today," said Rui Costa. "This one was the queen stage of the Mexican race - even if the one of tomorrow will be very difficult too - and the first four riders crossed the finishing line more than seven minutes ahead of the following riders, which says a lot about the race.

"Although I escaped from the beginning, I tried to reserve myself as much as possible," the stage winner explained. "I knew that was a factor and I could win, but Sevilla is fast and was only involved in the race for the general classification," he added.

"I was very tired when I finished the stage but I believe it was the same for everybody. I won rather easily even if you never win a race really easily. A few days before travelling to Mexico I had the flu and I almost decided to stay home. Today I am really happy I changed my mind and came here anyway."

If at first you don't succeed...

The stage began with the traditional breakaway in the opening kilometres, with seven riders among whom was Sevilla's teammate Glen Chadwick, Rui Costa and a combative Xavier Tondo, new leader of the mountain classification; the fate of the break was sealed from the outset by the gruelling profile however, and the gap never reached two minutes.

The moment of truth for this year's race may have come after cresting the summit of the category one climb almost halfway through the stage, when Dani Moreno launched a strong attack that eventually found Sevilla and Ladino amongst the leader at the front, while the large group behind was content to ride a sedate tempo.

Only Costa and Cioni contributed to the progress of the break, with the final advantage due largely to their work. The reward was the stage win for Costa, while Cioni moved into fourth overall.

"The team rode a great stage, sending people such as Chadwick, Martin, and then Mancebo ahead, although I think we benefited a bit from the disorganisation of Tecos," said an ecstatic Sevilla afterwards.

"There is still much more racing and I haven't won it yet because Tecos is a dangerous team, although the number of rivals has been reduced and I've got a very experienced team with a great run of form," he added.

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