Costa wins Worlds as Froome pulls out

Portugal's Rui Costa won the rain-soaked men's road race at the World Championships in Tuscany after Britain's Chris Froome withdrew. Costa took the lead just yards from the finish as he beat Spain's Joaquim Rodriguez by a bike-length in seven hours, 25 minutes, 43 seconds. Spaniard Alejandro Valverde took bronze, narrowly ahead of Italy's Vincenzo Nibali. Tour de France champion Froome quit with more than 80km left. Heavy rain had caused multiple crashes early in the re, with none of the eight-strong British team, which included Sir Bradley Wiggins and Mark Cavendish, making it over the finishing line. "The conditions are the same for everyone. We've got no excuse. We just weren't there," Froome, who was attempting to become the first man in 24 years to win the Tour and world road race in the same year, told BBC Sport. "It's a big disappointment, especially having made it such a big objective, but with these conditions it just wasn't meant to be.