Diego Ulissi will target the classics, especially Fleche Wallonne and Liege-Bastogne-Liege in 2014, rather than Grand Tours, the Lampre-Merida rider tells Tuttobiciweb.

Two time junior world champion, the Italian is regarded as a highly talented hilly classic rider. His result last season showed great promise as well, including impressive victories in Italian semi-classics Milano-Torino, Coppa Sabatini and Giro dell'Emilia. Ulissi attended the Ardennes classics too, although he didn't get any significant result.

Ulissi has higher ambitions next year though, "During those years, I learned the craft to be a  teammate, I listened to the advice of the staff and technicians, I learned that it takes patience to succeed. Now, I'll try to challenge the classics like Fleche Wallonne and Liege-Bastogne-Liege. Despite my young age, those are races that I know already." says the Italian.

Lampre-Merida will have a new GC rider next season, with former Giro winner Scarponi left for Astana and world champion Rui Costa joining. While Rui Costa will likely put Tour de France as his main goal, the Portugese is a quite good hilly classic rider too, especially in longer and harder ones, like Liege-Bastogne-Liege. Whether and how Ulissi and Rui Costa will distribute leadership oppotunities and cooperate with each other, still remains to be answered though.

But there's one thing that surely won't cause intra-team competition, though, which is GC leadership. Ulissi says, "I think my recovery is good, but in a Grand Tour, I could only hope to get a top 10 and I'd rather win a race to a minor ranking that isn't really meaningful. Shortly speaking, I think I can shine on one-day races. Time will tell if I'm wrong or not."