All eyes were on Diego Ulissi in yesterday's queen stage of the Settimana Internazionale Coppi e Bartali as the defending champion had won the similar stage one year ago. However, the Italian faded back and instead it was Rafael Valls who shone for Lampre-Merida in his first race since breaking his collarbone in January.

Diego Ulissi had lined up at the Settimana Internazionale Coppi e Bartali with the intention of defending his title but after yesterday's queen stage, it is clear that those lofty ambitions won't come to fruition. The Italian suffered the final time up the Monte Tiffi climb and ended up losing more than 6 minutes to stage winner Peter Kennaugh.

Instead, his teammate, new Lampre signing Rafael Valls, defied expectations by performing excellently on the hard stage. The Spaniard broke his collarbone in January's Tour Down Under and this week's race is his first since that incident.

Valls performed surprisingly well by making it into the 10-rider group that formed behind Kennaugh and Francesco Bongiorno and he ultimately crossed the line in 11th to move up to 8th on GC.

"In today's stage the team has achieved one of the objectives which we had at the Coppi e Bartali: To evaluate the condition of the riders who have been away from racing for vairous reasons," sports director Daniele Righi said. "Valls had juss returned to competition after an injury. Today he offered important signals about his state of form. We are satisfied, especially because it means that, during the recovery period, he has acted as a great professional.

"Xu Gang waited a few months before starting his season. I must say that he gives interesting results and shows that he can be useful for the team and knows how to integrate in the squad."