On the 15th stage, 165 km from Marostica to the summit finish in Madonna di Campiglio with the climbs of La Fricca and Passo Daone, Lampre-Merida counted on Przemyslaw Niemiec’s vivacity. The Polish rider was very active in the early part of the stage, joining various escape attempts.

“In theory, today’s stage could have been suitable for a breakaway, that’s why my target was to be present in the escape attempts in the early part of the course,” Niemiec explained to the Lampre website. “I tried to attack 5 times, unfortunately the bunch did not leave much space to the attempts. The evolution of the stage was not positive for the attackers.

“Tomorrow, on the rest day, I’ll recover in order to be ready for the last week of the race“.

The other riders from Team Lampre-Merida did not make remarkable actions: in the next 6 stages they are expected to be protagonists as they’ve been until now.

Team manager Brent Copeland said:

“Niemiec was very active in the first part of the course, he tried hard to escape but he could not join the decisive action. Anyway, it’s important to highlight that the rest of the stage became unsuitable for the attackers, so our riders saved energy because they want to animate the race“.

The stage was won by Landa in front of Trofimov and Contador who retained the pink jersey. Niemiec crossed the finish line in 30th position (+7’50”).