Diego Ulissi (Lampre-Merida) has been the man of the late season and today the Italian continued his impressive run of form when he won the prestigious Giro dell'Emilia. With three wins in less than two weeks, he feels that he is on the right path towards a glorious future.
Diego Ulissi has been almost unbeatable in the final part of the season. He used the Vuelta a Espana to build condition for the world championships and that race ended on a sour note with two crashes, he has made good use of his form in the last two weeks.
He kicked things off in Milan-Turin where he won on the steep Superga climb and after a bad day in Il Lombardia, he proved his strength as an uphill sprinter when he won the Coppa Sabatini on Thursday. Today he took the biggest win in his string of successes when he won the highly prestigious Giro dell'Emilia.
The win comes as a confirmation in a season where the 24-year old has progressively improved his level. He won a stage and the overall in the Coppi e Bartali in March and went on to win a stage of the Tour de Pologne in late July. In the final part of the season, he has stepped up his game a further level and now feels ready to take on bigger classics next year.
"It 's the sixth win of a season that has given me important confirmation," he said. "It is not easy to get so many victories. It means that I am on the right path to further improvement towards a higher level, led by people in whom I have great confidence."
As it was the case on Thursday, his Lampre team dominated today's race. The presence of Manuele Mori in today's big break allowed the team to stay calm in the bunch for most of the day.
As soon as the group was caught, the team made things hard on the several passages of the steep San Luca climb, first with Winner Anacona and later with Kristijan Durasek who covered a move by Emanuele Sella in the finale. The final time up San Luca it was Michele Scarponi who set a fierce pace until Ulissi took things into his own hands.
"Once again, I finalized a magnificent work done by all Lampre riders during the race," he said. "The blue-fuchsia-green were always in the spotlight. First Anacona tried to escape from the peloton. Then Mori hit the main breakaway of 14 riders which was caught on the second passage of San Luca. At that point, Durasek and Cunego went into action and forced our opponents to react. I always had Scraponi at my side. Michele set me up on the last lap and once again I had good legs in the finale."
Tomorrow, Ulissi will be back in action one final time when he lines up in the GP Beghelli that brings the Italian season to a close.
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