Rui Costa had the absolute worst start to a TT

Rui Costa had a terrible start in the opening time trial of the Tour de Romandie on Tuesday. The 6.82 km prologue in Port Valais kicked off things for one of the longest-running stace races in cycling. The Tour of Romandie is six stages long and takes place in Romandie, a french-speaking region in Switzerland.

The former world champion who now rides for Intermarché – Circus – Wanty, was on the starting ramp on his TT machine, and when he began,, everything went wrong. In just two pedal strokes, his chainrings sheared right off his bike. He also banged his knee in the incident, and had to swap bikes. The Portuguese rider jumped on a road bike and got back going, but it was definitely not an optimal way to start a short and fast test. He would finish dead last in 154th, 4:52 behind.

Tour de Romandie: Michael Woods to take on race he led in 2021

Josef Černý of Soudal – Quick Step took the win, averaging a blistering 55.173 km/h. Canada’s Mike Woods finished 139th, 49 seconds behind. The Israel-Premier Tech has plenty of hilly stages ahead of him to move up in the overall, however.

Watch the brutal beginning for Costa below.

Rui Costa didn't have the best of starts at the #TDR2023 when his chainrings sheared clean off his bike whilst starting the Prologue! ?

Watch the race replay over on GCN+ ? https://t.co/8FSJcLL3Gx pic.twitter.com/cUn5AuRYxd

— GCN Racing (@GcnRacing) April 25, 2023