It was a mixed day for Lampre-Merida on the queen stage of the Tour de Slovenie. The team had controlled the race all day to set up Diego Ulissi for the win but the Italian was on a bad day and lost more than 9 minutes. As opposed to this, Chris Horner rode solidly in his first big test since his horrific crash earlier this year.

This year's Tour de Slovenie is attracting extra attention due to the fact that it marks the comeback for Vuelta champion Chris Horner after his horrific crash earlier this year. The American is using the 4-day race to gauge his condition and afterwards he will decide with his Lampre-Merida team whether he will go to the Tour de France as a co-leader for the GC alongside Rui Costa.

Yesterday he faced his first big test in the race's queen stage and the signs were promising for the veteran American who crossed the line in 17th, losing 1.44 to winner Francesco Bongiorno. The result elevated him to 12th in the overall standings, 2.15 behind race leader Tiago Machado.

The team leader for the race, however, was Diego Ulissi who is using the race to fine-tune his condition for the Italian championships. Having finished third in the time trial, the Italian was in a confident mood and he asked his team to control the race all day.

In the end, however, Ulissi got dropped by the main favourites and lost more than 9 minutes to Bongiorno.

"The team has worked for me," he said. "I wanted to try to be a protagonist but at the beginning of the last climb I realized that I was not a great day. It's a shame that I only found out so late and I am sorry for my teammates who committed themselves to me."