Rui Alberto Costa wins 8th stage of Tour de France

Super-Besse: Portuguese rider Rui Alberto Costa won the eighth stage of the Tour de France after withstanding a late attack from Philippe Gilbert on Saturday, while Thor Hushovd kept the leader`s yellow jersey.

Costa waved his hands in delight and then punched the air as he clinched the first Tour stage win of his career. "I knew I could get in the breakaway today, the team put me in the best position," Costa said. "I was lucky that I managed to hold on until the end. I`m very happy with this win." The race entered the mountains for the first time in the 117-mile trek from Aigurande to Super-Besse, featuring a sharp category 2 climb up Col de la Croix and a final climb of one mile. Hushovd has been wearing the yellow jersey for a week. Hushovd, who is not a renowned climber, was certain he was going to lose the yellow jersey before the stage. "Maybe I was a bit pessimistic," he said. "I didn`t think I could do it."Alexandre Vinokourov closed within 15 seconds of Costa in the last mile, but the Kazakh rider ran out of steam as he had no teammates to help him. Gilbert was fresher after sitting in with the main pack for much of the day`s climbs. He overtook Vinokourov after launching an attack with about 400 meters left. None of the main Tour contenders lost any significant time. Defending champion Alberto Contador of Spain, Andy Schleck of Luxembourg and Cadel Evans of Australia — both two-time runners-up — tested each other out with mini-attacks. Since Gilbert is not considered an overall Tour contender, they didn`t feel the need to chase down the Belgian when he went after Vinokourov. Evans is looking forward to trying another attack on Sunday`s ninth stage, which also features several climbs. "I have a very good team that`s been working very hard every day," Evans said. "Let`s wait and see what happens tomorrow.” Bureau Report