Diego Ulissi lived up to expectations in today's Italian one-day race Coppa Sabatini when the Italian won the tough uphill sprint in Peccioli. His teammates controlled the race from the very beginning and Ulissi paid back their favour by powering clear of Andrea Pasqualon (Bardiani) and Davide Villella (Cannondale) on the uphill finishing straight.

Looking at the start list for today's Coppa Sabatini, it was clear that Lampre-Merida had lined up by far the strongest race for the Italian one-day race. With riders like Michele Scarponi, Diego Ulissi, Damiano Cunego and Adriano Malori in their ranks, the team had to carry the favourite status and they completely lived up to expectations.

Throughout the entire race, the team showed its intentions and almost did a 200km team time trial on the front of the peloton. Winner Anacona and Malori did the early work and when the race went into the final kilometres, it was Scarponi who set a hard tempo that significantly whittled down the peloton ahead of the 1km climb to the finish.

In the end, Ulissi finished off the impressive work by taking a convincing sprint win to add another victory to the one he took last Wednesday in Milan-Turin. He beat Andrea Pasqualon and young Cannondale stagiare Davide Villella in the final dash to the line while Franco Pellizotti (Androni) and Mauro Finetto (Vini Fantini) completed the top 5.

The win was Ulissi's 5th in what has so far been an amazing season. He will be back in action on Saturday for one of the biggest Italian one-day races, Giro dell'Emilia, where he will once again combine forces with Scarponi to conquer the difficult San Luca climb.

On Saturday, you can follow that race on CyclingQuotes.com/live. We will also bring you a thorough preview of the important end-of-season classic.

A tough course

The 61st edition of Coppa Sabatini kicked off with a 21,1km stretch that brought the riders to a big 21,5km circuit that was repeated 6 times. It contained a climb at the midpoint and the final 1km climb to the finish which had an average gradient of 6%. The race finished with 4 laps on a smaller 12,2km circuit that was mostly flat but ended with the same 1km ascent to the finish.

The start was very aggressive with several riders trying to get clear but for a long time no one had any success. Finally, four riders managed to separate themselves from the bunch when Matteo Montaguti (Ag2r), Antonio Parrinello (Androni), Jacques Janse Van Rensburg (MTN-Qhubeka) and Angelo Pagani (Bardiani) got a gap. Edoardo Zardini (Bardiani) and Luigi Miletta (Vini Fantini) set off in pursuit and after a short chase, they joined the leaders to form a 6-rider escape group.

Lampre in control

The escapees were allowed to build up a gap of 3.45 but Lampre-Merida had big plans for Ulissi today. The Italian team took control of the peloton and brought the gap down to less than 3 minute. With Winner Anacona being the driving force, the gap remained between the 2- and 3-minute mark for most of the day.

With 75km to go, Lampre decided to up the pace and so they put time trial specialist Adroano Malori on the front. His hard work ripped the peloton to pieces and brought the gap down to only 48 seconds when 54km remained.

The defending champion on the attack

As the peloton was about to catch the break to early, Lampre decided to slow down and when the escapees started the first of the four short laps, their gap was 1.22. The pace was once again upped and when the gap was down to just 30 seconds, defending champion Fabio Duarte (Colombia) and Ilia Koshevoy (Androni) tried to bridge across to the leaders.

The two chasers were caught while Parrinello launched an attack from the front group. He was joined by Van Rensburg and a little later Zardini also closed the gap. Pagani, Miletta and Montaguti were caught by the peloton.

The break is caught

The 3 escapees managed to stay clear for a little while but Lampre still had 7 riders lined out on the front of the peloton. With 22km to go, it was all over for the escapees and everything was back together.

Several attacks now ensued but Lampre-Merida always kept things under control. When Stefano Pirazzi (Bardiani) and Enrico Rossi (Meridiana) got a slight gap and were joined by an aggressive Duarte, the Italian team reacted quickly and brought things back together.

Sinkewitz crashes out

When the peloton started the final lap, it was no less of a figure than Michele Scarponi who strung things out on the front. He was joined by riders from Vini Fantini and Meridiana who tried to set up Mauro Finetto and Patrik Sinkewitz respectively.

Disaster struck for Sinkewitz when he crashed with Darwin Atapuma (Colombia) and Louis Meintjes (MTN-Qhubeka) and was taken out of contention. Meanwhile, talented Gianfranco Zilioli (Androni) managed to separate himself from the back but Scarponi made sure to bring things back together.

When the peloton passed the flamme rouge, all was set for the expected uphill sprint and Bardiani and Cannondale had now taken control. They were replaced by an Ag2r rider who kept the pace high as they sped towards the finish line. However, there was no one  beating Ulissi who took the win that his Lampre team had prepared all day.

Result:

1. Diego Ulissi

2. Andrea Pasqualon

3. Davide Villella

4. Franco Pellizotti

5. Mauro Finetto

6. Andrea Zordan

7. Pier Paolo De Negri

8. Mikael Cherel

9. Miguel Angel Rubiano

10. Davide Mucelli