Lampre-Merida went into the Tour de France with two captains but illness took both Rui Costa and Sacha Modolo out of the race. The team is frustrated not to have had the chance to see what impact they could have had on the race.

Lampre-Merida had a two-pronged attack for the Tour de France: Rui Costa was targeting the overall standings while Sacha Modolo would chase a stage win in the sprints. However, illness took both of them out of the race at an early stage and so the team was left to chase stage wins by riding aggressively.

In the end, the team's most notable performance was delivered by Chris Horner that ended 17th overall despite having just come back from serious injuries.

"In this Tour de France we didn't have the chance to exploit the value of our main riders Rui Costa and Modolo who both had to quit the race because of illness," manager Brent Copeland said. "Except for the bad luck, we're proud to have always tried to take advantage of the great exposure that such an amazing race offers whenever we had the chance. In the final week we always raced aggressively with Durasek, Serpa and Horner.

"Regarding Chris, he was in hospital because of serious wounds just three months ago. Today he's in Paris and he's among the 20 best cyclists in the French race. We're very satisfied and we're happy we were part of the amazing show that is the Tour de France."