Enrico Gasparotto (Astana) felt he had the legs to follow Diego Ulissi (Lampre-Merida) in yesterday's GP Camaiore and regretted his tactical mistake not to do so. However, the Italian is happy with his condition in view of the upcoming Paris-Nice.

Astana played a dominant role in yesterday's GP Camaiore when the Kazakh team took the responsibility to chase down the early break. The plan was to set up Vincenzo Nibali for an attack on the final climb of Monte Pitoro.

The Giro champion tried his best but again he showed that his condition is not yet at its best. Instead, it was left to teammates Francesco Gavazzi and Enrico Gasparotto to come away with the goods.

Gasparotto felt that he had the legs to follow eventual winner Diego Ulissi when he made the decisive acceleration on the Monte Pitoro. However, he chose to stay in the peloton and ultimately regretted his decision.

“Normally I always suffer a lot at this race but today I was quite happy with my condition," he said. "It has been one month since I raced, but I have been training in Tenerife at altitude with the team and my condition for Paris-Nice is really good.

"Tactics-wise it was a mistake not to follow Ulissi from the top of the last climb, but physically a good race."

Instead, the team played the Gavazzi card in the sprint for 5th and the Italian took a fine 10th.

Gasparotto and Gavazzi will both join Nibali on the start line for Paris-Nice on Sunday.