It was a black day for Lampre-Merida in today's stage of Tirreno-Adriatico. While Chris Horner didn't start the stage, Sacha Modolo was involved in the big crash at the finish and so lost all chances to take another win for his new team.

Lampre-Merida had lined up a very strong team for this year's Tirreno-Adriatico but after today's final road stage, the team finds itself in a position of possibly returning empty-handed from the race.

It all got off to a bad start when team captain Chris Horner was forced out of the race due to tendonitis. The American was sitting in 11th overall but as a precautionary measure, the team decided to withdraw him from the race.

There was still hope, however, that Sacha Modolo could win the expected bunch sprint to continue his excellent season start. With teammates Davide Cimolai and Filippo Pozzato, he was excellently positioned near the front inside the final 2km but it all came to nothijng when he was involved in the big crash that took out most of the Lotto Belisol train.

"I knew that the end of today would be very intense, with many riders full of desire to do the last sprint of the race," Modolo said. "Precisely for this reason, I was brought into the first positions by my team already 2km from the finish line. Unfortunately, the last corner held the decisive danger.

"I am very sorry not to have finalized the great work of my teammates that have kept me in a good position all day, and because of this, I had good legs for the sprint.  I have no serious injuries from the crash and this gives me confidence for the next important event."

The team is hopeful that Diego Ulissi can move up from his 13th place in tomorrow's time trial but the Italian was unlucky to crash early in today's stage. Luckily, he only suffered light abrasions.

You can read our preview of the final stage here and follow our love coverage at 14.15 CET on CyclingQuotes.com/live.