After a disappointing performance at the Vuelta al Pais Vasco, Rui Costa headed into the Amstel Gold Race with a lot of uncertainty about his condition. Despite only coming away with 17th, the world champion was pleased with his performance that bodes well for his big goal at the Liege-Bastogne-Liege while his teammates Damiano Cunego and Diego Ulissi both had a bad day.

Very few teams could take to the start line of the Amstel Gold Race with so many podium candidates as Lampre-Merida which had a formidable three-pronged attack. Led by world champion Rui Costa who has made the Ardennes classics his first big target of the year, the team also had big hopes for an in-form Damiano Cunego and Diego Ulissi who has dominated the hilly Italian one-day races for the last few months.

However, it was mostly a day to forget for the Italian team as Costa was the team's best finisher in 17th. Ulissi could only manage 34th while Cunego had an even worse day, crossing the line in 50th.

Despite finishing outside the top 10, Costa was satsified with his performance. After his poor performance at the Vuelta al Pais Vasco, he had been uncertain about his condition but he got reassured ahead of his biggest goal: Liege-Bastogne-Liege.

In fact, the world champion was close to a top 10 finish. Over the top of the Cauberg, he took off on his own and was very close to bridging the gap to the four-rider group with Bauke Mollema, Simon Geschke, Enrico Gasparotto and Daniel Moreno that sprinted for 6th. However, he was caught by a bigger group just before the line and finished at the rear end in 17th.

"Amstel is very complicated, the pace is always high and the constant turns don't give you time to recover," he explained. "Today I could appreciate the feedbacks from the hard work I did to prepare for the Ardennes week. I had a good feeling and I think my form is going to improve during the next days as I keep focus on the big objective, Liege-Bastogne-Liege.

"Today I tried to be in the top positions in the key moments, but this is not always simple. It was very difficult to be there in the run-in to the last passage of Cauberg. It was necessary to do a huge effort to be near the front of the peloton. After the summit, I tried to anticipate to have higher chances to be in the top ten, but my attempt was unsuccessful."

Cunego was disappointed with his performance that reminded many of his many below-par showings over the last few years.

"It was a strange edition of Amstel," he said. "There was no selection in the group and it was a 70-rider peloton that reached the Cauberg for the final two passages. This means higher stress in the fight for position in the run-in to the climbs.

"I think that, despite the perfect support by the team, I spent energies in trying to be in the proper positions on the key climbs of the course.
The race was more suited to puncheurs like Gilbert than to pure climbers.

"This morning I thought I could obtain a notable result, but I could not achieve my goals. I'm not down, I'm ready to face the next races."

Ulissi has always struggled with the long distances and had hopes to turn things around with a solid showing in yesterday's race.

"I started the race with bad feelings and I could not find the right rhythm," he said. "I expected that, kilometre after kilometre, the situation would imorve, but I was suffering and I had to race defensively on a course where you always need to be in front. I gritted my teeth and hoped to shine at the end but I could not compete for a result.

"I'm sorry, days like this sometimes happen. Now, I focus my attention on Fleche Wallone".