In the first stage of Three Days of De Panne (201 km from De Panne to Zottegem), good weather and high temperature went with the 7 attackers that led the race for most of the course.
No LAMPRE-MERIDA cyclists were in this group, but the cyclists from sport director Maini’s team tried hard to jump from the bunch on this breakaway in the final part of the race: Modolo, Cimolai and Favilli escaped from the peloton, but they did not succeed in joining the head of the race.

Sagan and three riders achieve this goal, attacking from the group on the penultimate hill of the course (Eikenmolen, 10 km to go) and the rider from Slovakia won the sprint of the 11 cyclists head group.
Cimolai was the best for LAMPRE-MERIDA, reaching the arrival in the main chasing group and obtaining the 16th position. Favilli and Richeze too were with Cimolai.

Two crashes for blue-fuchsia-green riders: Richeze suffered bruises at both knees, Bonifazio had a wounded hand.

“The care by our cyclists was great, they racing better and better, but this was enough for obtaining a good result - sport director Maini explained - We need to make a further step to compete for top positions: it is difficult, but we’ll try to do our best”.

STAGE RESULTS
1- Sagan 4h29’39″
2- Gatto s.t.
3- Van Bilsen s.t.
4- Steegmans s.t.
5- De Vreese s.t.
16- Cimolai 19″
64- Richeze s.t., 67- Favilli s.t., 101- Modolo 32″, 115- Palini 5’18″, 127- Bonifazio 7’26″, 139- Dodi 8’52″.

OVERALL CLASSIFICATION
1- Sagan 4h29’29″
2- Gatto 4″
3- Van Bilsen 6″
4- Steegmans 7″
5- De Vreese 10″
19- Cimolai 29″

Good news from Italy, where Manuele Mori underwent surgery at his left hand.
He had crashed in Coppi e Bartali and he got a broken left little finger.
In Centro Bufalini in Florence, Dottor Angeloni performed surgery on the fracture.
In few days, Mori will be able to start trainings.