Lamore-Merida in Milano-Sanremo 2015 had much good feedback from Milan-Sanremo. The team that was directed by Mario Scirea, exploited all the resources they could rely on and they succeeded in obtaining a 5th place thanks to Niccolo Bonifazio and an 8th plance thanks to Davide Cimolai.
Bonifazio, 21 years old, and Cimolai, 25 years old, battled on via Roma against more experienced riders and against riders that were bigger favourites for the victory. At the end of a long sprint, Bonfazio crossed the finish line just behind Degenkolb, Kristoff, Matthews and Sagan, obtaining a very good 5th place, and Cimolai completed the double by obtaining a 8th place. They were also the only two Italian riders in the top 10.
"The fifth place is a good result for me, I'm happy I succeeded in being protagonist in this race that covers the roads I cover every day during training," Bonifazio explained. The approach to Sanremo was perfect for me, I avoided the crashes that characterized the final part of the race and I still had energy so I was ready to support Cimolai in view of the sprint. I was in the front position but when we took the last turn, I lost the contact with Cimolai and when I realized what had happened, it was too late to try to find him again so I decided to go on in the sprint".
"I delivered a good performance, the support from the team was perfect and the motivation helped me to overcome the cold, the rain and the fatigue," Cimolai said. "In the final kilometer, Bonifazio moved forward but in the final turn I had problems following him so I tried to recover in the sprint but it was too difficult to do better than what I did. I had great ambitions for this race, a place on the podium would have been amazing, but I think I can be satisfied."
Another outstanding performance was delivered by Matteo Bono who was once again the best attacker in a top race. Je escaped from the bunch in the early kilometers with 10 riders and he was the last one to surrender on the Cipressa after more than 260km in the breakway.
The good performances of Rui Costa and Pozzato were stopped by two unfortunate events. The Portuguese crashed on the Capo Berta descent when two riders who were ahead of him near the front of the peloton, slid out and hit the road. Costa suffered light bruises but he could not complete the race.
Pozzato got stuck in the second part of the front group on the Poggio descent when a crash broke the group in two.
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