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Days after 'retiring', could Alessandro Petacchi be Mark Cavendish's Giro d'Italia leadout?Petacchi beats Cavendish in Parma (picture Daniele Badolato, LaPresse, RCS Sport)

Days after 'retiring', could Alessandro Petacchi be Mark Cavendish's Giro d'Italia leadout?

Gazzetta dello Sport reports Italian sprinter may be answer to Omega Pharma-Quick Step's train troubles...
by Simon_MacMichael
Sat, Apr 27, 2013 16:52
6

Alessandro Petacchi could be set to make an unexpected return to the peloton to act as leadout to Mark Cavendish at Omega Pharma-Quick Step, possibly as soon as the Giro d’Italia which starts a week today in Naples – just days after announcing that he was leaving his Lampre-Merida team with immediate effect.

A statement from the 39-year-old in which he said goodbye to his fans and gave thanks to all those who supported him during his career certainly suggested that he had ridden his final race at the top level.

However, according today's print edition of the Italian sports daily La Gazzetta dello Sport, Omega Pharma-Quick Step believe that Petacchi could be the solution to Cavendish’s dissatisfaction with his leadout train, having failed to up a string of early season successes including the overall in the Tour of Qatar.

The pair have had their differences in the past – notably, following Stage 2 of the 2011 Giro d’Italia, where Cavendish believed Petacchi had failed to hold his line as he beat him to the line in Parma, though the Manxman had the consolation of taking over the maglia rosa from then HTC-Highroad team mate Marco Pinotti.

As Petacchi pointed out, there is a precedent close to home of a once near-unbeatable sprinter dropping down to support a younger rider – he himself benefited from the leadout of the great Erik Zabel towards the end of the latter’s own career, and the German would go on to coach Cavendish at HTC.

While Petacchi told the Gazzetta yesterday that he had not yet had contact from Cavendish’s team, the newspaper says that it has received confirmation from “reliable sources” that Omega Pharma-Quick Step is seriously considering engaging the Italian’s services, if not for the Giro then possibly in time for the Tour de France.

In the 2010 edition of that race, Petacchi completed his set of Grand Tour points jerseys, becoming only the fourth man to do so – were he to ride in the Giro for Omega Pharma-Quick Step, he could be in a position to help Cavendish, a points classification winner in the 2010 Vuelta and 2011 Tour de France but who missed out in last year’s Italian Grand Tour by a solitary point, join that elite club.

Alessandro Petacchi
Mark Cavendish
Omega Pharma-Quick Step
Giro d'Italia 2013
Simon MacMichael

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

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6 comments

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Nick T | 10 years ago
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Can't see any benefit to dropping a tainted rider, if anything you'd want to keep him close to keep tabs, especially if he can still do a job for you. Just because they let him retire into the wilds won't clear the team of any wrongdoing that went on will it.

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Nick T | 10 years ago
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Unless he has some significant dirt on Lampre that the current investigators might like to be aware of 3

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Colin Peyresourde replied to Nick T | 10 years ago
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Nick T wrote:

Unless he has some significant dirt on Lampre that the current investigators might like to be aware of 3

It could be the other way round with Lampre knowing Petacchi is tainted rider and that they want rid of him..... 39 Did he jump? Or was he pushed?

Hope something works out for Cav. OPQS are looking like a team of individuals at the moment and something needs to change, though of course riding in the classics it's never going to be a team display like the tour is.

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Stumps | 10 years ago
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I was under the impression that the transfer season was at the end of the season, didn't realise you could chop and change mid season ?

Unless of course cos he's retired its different.

Agree with Gkam on this though, Lampre will be doing there dinger if he signs for OPQS.

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Gkam84 | 10 years ago
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I can see this falling flat on its face. Because he "retired" then Lampre would have torn up his contract and wished him well in the future.

To then turn around a week later and think about signing with another team, Lampre will have the lawyers on speed dial calling in everything, because the will be looking for cash from OPQS

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drheaton replied to Gkam84 | 10 years ago
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Gkam84 wrote:

I can see this falling flat on its face. Because he "retired" then Lampre would have torn up his contract and wished him well in the future.

To then turn around a week later and think about signing with another team, Lampre will have the lawyers on speed dial calling in everything, because the will be looking for cash from OPQS

Agreed but OPQS are not exactly short of cash and they could easily settle any claim laid down by Lampre. If anything this works for both parties as Lampre are then shut of a non-winning rider and cashed up whereas OPQS get the best out of their new investment.

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