Filippo Pozzato (Lampre-Merida) finished a disappointing cobbled campaign with a 22nd place in yesterday's Paris-Roubaix. The result was just another bad result for the former runner-up in the event, and the Italian will now try to find the causes for his lack of performances.

Lampre-Merida brought in Filippo Pozzato ahead of this year's season with the firm hope that the former runner-up in both the Tour of Flanders and the Paris-Roubaix would put the team back on the map in the cobbled classics. With the Northern classics now behind us, both Pozzato and the team have been massively disappointed to recognize that yesterday's 22nd in the Roubaix velodrome has been the best result of the campaign.

The Italian crashed just moments before eventual winner Fabian Cancellara (Radioshack) put in the first important acceleration with around 50km remaining and he had spent plenty of energy to get back in contention at that point. He was unable to join the crucial 13-man selection on the Mons-en-Pevele sector and was left to chase behind in a group also including an unlucky Sylvain Chavanel.

However, the 2006 Milan-Sanremo winner had no excuses for his disappointing performance and admitted that he simply lacked the legs to stay with the best.

“Things went wrong and so I could not be in the front end of the race," he said. "I’m not happy.
With 70 km to go, I was involved in a crash. In Paris-Roubaix, crashes and punctures can happen, so it was not the main reason for my defeat, also considering that the crash happened in a non-key moment. However, I was forced to spend energies to get back to the group."

As in the Tour of Flanders, his legs did not respond as he had hoped for, and he will now take a short break and try to find out why his preparations have not made him as competitive as he was last year when he was 2nd in Flanders.

"In the final part of the race, I felt that my legs could not pedal in a powerful way and in this condition you can’t compete for a top result," he explained. "I don’t know the reason for these troubles, it was more or less the same in the Tour of Flanders. I trained in a proper way. I gave my best to be ready for these events, but I missed out."

" I’m even more sorry because I really hoped to give satisfactions to Mr. Mario and Mr. Emanuele Galbusera from Lampre who joined the team here in France, and to Merida who supported the team with outstanding bikes."

The team now hopes to take revenge in the Ardennes classics where Damiano Cunego and Diego Ulissi are expected to lead the team.