As sprinter Sacha Modolo has left the race and Davide Cimolai is not at 100%, Lampre-Merida had no card to play in today's flat stage of the Tour de France. Hence, the team focused on getting Rui Costa safely through the day but the world champion definitely didn't have an easu day

Going into the Tour de France, Lampre-Merida planned to be active in the mountains with Rui Costa and Chris Horner and in the sprints with Sacha Modolo. However, the latter abandoned the race early on and so the team has mostly been focused on its GC campaign.

Davide Cimolai has been given his chance in the sprint finishes but the Italian is no longer at 100% and so it was all about getting safely through the day in today's flat stage 15 of the race.

"Stage 15 had no hard climbs but it was not as quiet as we wanted," he wrote on his website. "In fact, we have not had a single quiet moment in this Tour. Today the peloton dedided not to rest and instead set a fast pace. There were several attacks when we were caught up in a storm. In the end, it was another veru hard day. Fortunately, none of us had any problems and we all reached the finish safely."

"With Cimolai not in optimal condition, we did not have many opportunities to see our jerseys in the front row in today's final sprint," sports director Joxean Fernandez Matxin said. "The only option was to try to go on the attack but today's break was only made up of two riders and, on paper, it had little chance of making it all the way to the finish. In fact, the group got more space than you could imagine. 

"Tomorrow we will try to use the rest day to recuperate and focus on our goal for the final week: To attack the race with determination and aggression."