Damiano Cunego (Lampre-Merida) lined up in yesterday's Amstel Gold Race with the firm hope of repeating his 2008 win in the race. Feeling that his legs were not up to a fight with the best, he tried an early, unsuccessful move and a final 43rd place did not live op to his expectations.

The Ardennes classics mark the first important season target for Damiano Cunego who has carefully prepared another strong campaign in Northern Europe. However, his performances in his final preparation race, the Vuelta al Pais Vasco, did not give much hope for success as he delivered an unusually quiet performance on the Spanish roads.

Yesterday's Amstel Gold Race proved that things had not turned around ahead of his preferred races. Early in the race, the Italian felt that he would be unable to stay with the best on the final Cauberg climb and instead he made an early move with 25km remaining. He was a lone chaser of the earlier escapees for a number of kilometres but hard work from the Cannondale and Omega Pharma-Quick Step teams brought him back at the bottom of the penultimate ascent of the Cauberg climb with 20km to go.

Having spent plenty of energy, the Italian was unable to follow the best in the final part of the race and he had to settle for a hugely disappointing 43rd place.

“As usual, Amstel Gold Race is a very nervous race and you must be at the top of the shape to be competitive," he said. "I was not at the top, I understood it during the race, so I tried to anticipate my move. The result of this action was not good, so I’m not satisfied. Congratulations to Kreuziger who has hit the right move."

The team's best finisher was Diego Ulissi but the talented Italian was also not able to stay at the pointy end of the race. He ended up 25th as part of the second big group across the line 36 seconds behind winner Roman Kreuziger.

Nonetheless, he had good sensations and unlike his captain he feels confident ahead of the remaining classics.

"In the end I lacked the energy to stay with the best," he explained. "Too bad because the race turned out to be open to various solutions. Despite the final, my legs felt good throughout the race, so I'm confident about the Flèche Wallonne."

The result was another disappointment during a terrible spring classics campaign in which Filippo Pozzato failed to make any impression in the cobbled classics.