Rui Costa was again very close to the podium, obtaining the 4th place on the 3rd stage of the Tour de Romandie, after he had taken 4th in the Amstel Gold Race and in Liege-Bastogne-Liege and 5th in yesterday's stage.

On the third stage of the Tour de Romandie, the bunch moved from Moutier to Porrentruy (173 km), climbing two 2nd category and two 3rd category climbs, the last one with 25 km to go.

Lampre-Merida was remarkable for the group spirit and for the way all the blue-fuchsia-green riders covered the climbs in the front positions of the bunch.

The team was also very strong in supporting Rui Costa in the approach to the final sprint of the reduced group of 80 riders.

Costa was slowed by a bad approach of Haas to the final bend, he tried to raise the speed again and he obtained the 4th place behind Albasini, Alaphilippe and Caruso.

In the front group, Lampre-Merida also had Ulissi, Serpa, Niemiec and Grmay.

"Today the stage again ended in a sprint, not of a bunch but of a 80-rider group,” Rui Costa explained, “The team helped me to be in the head position in the approach to the last kilometer and when I was in the final 1000 meters I tried to follow the wheel of Albasini, who was the favourite rider, but it was not simple because the battle involved many riders.

“Albasini demonstrated again that he's now the most competitive rider in this kind of fnish , but I'm also satisfied because I did the best I could do, even if the 3rd place would have been better. My gap to the leader of the overall classification is 1'01": day by day I'll try to reduce it."