Diego Ulissi conquers second stage of 2014 Tour Down Under

Lampre-Merida’s Diego Ulissi notched his first victory of 2014 in Stage 2 of the 2014 Tour Down Under, besting Simon Gerrans, Cadel Evans and others at the arrival in Stierling.

Ulissi performed a perfect sprint on the hilly arrival, starting his action well in advance and celebrating the first victory of the 2014 season for his Italian team.

Sport director Vicino can be satisfied by the performance of all his riders, that supported Ulissi in a perfect way: they helped him to be in the head of the group and Wackermann led him to the best position to start the sprint.

Thanks to the victory, Ulissi is 2nd in the overall classification, at 7″ to the leader Gerrans.

The beautiful day for LAMPRE-MERIDA was wrecked by the crash of Rafael Valls, who suffered for a broken humerus. As Doctor De Grandi, LAMPRE-MERIDA’s physician, reported, the Spanish cyclists will undergo surgery in Adelaide.

“I’m so happy and I want to share my joy with the team and the sponsors and to dedicate it to my team mate Valls that was involved in a crash – Ulissi commented – Team performed a perfect race, so it was easy for me to approach the final kilometer in the best position in the group. I evaluated that it could have been good to anticipate the sprint: it works perfectly!”.