Lampre-Merida’s captain covered the stage in 20'47" (average speed 27,715 km/h) and only Porte (winner, 20'23") and Spilak (2nd place, 20'36") could do better than him. The performance of Rui Costa was remarkable.

In addition to the podium in the stage classification, the Portuguese rider should have deserved an additional reward: the podium in the overall classification, but he missed out by the tiniest of margins

In fact, behind Porte, winner of the Paris-Nice, three riders (Rui Costa, Kwiatkowski and Spilak) had the same gap (+30") and it was the exact times from the time trials which relegated the former world champion to fourth.

The results for Lampre-Merida in Paris-Nice 2015 (one victory and one second place for Cimolai) is enriched by the 13th place of Valls in the final stage (+59") and his 8th position in the final overall classification (+1'24").

"At the end of a very demanding Paris-Nice, during which we ran in the cold and in the rain and my team and me realized good performances, it's so strange to be fourth in the overall classification with the same time as the second and the third place,” Rui Costa said.

“This is cycling and this is sport, so I accept it and I prefer to focus my attention on the fact that my legs are in a good shape and that I realized a positive performance in the time trial where I had recovered well from yesterday's stage I hope to be luckier in the next appointments, so I'll be able to give to the team and to the fans even better satisfactions".

Sport director Simone Pedrazzini, who guided the team with his colleague Philippe Mauduit, analyzed the results of the blue-fuchsia-green group in the French race:

"Today Rui's performance  was of great quality. He was very strong and the final result of the time trial reflects his ride. As Rui lost the podium despite finishing with the same time as Spilak and Kwiatkowski, we feel the bitterness. Rui did everything possible but didn't get the just reward.

"It was an excellent Paris-Nice for Valls, also in light the fact tof hat he had started the race with bad health. Rafael was able to confirm the good results he achieved earlier ​​this season. 

"The performance of Rui and Valls add to the outstanding results achieved by Cimolai, the first Italian to win a stage in the Paris-Nice since 2007."