With no more opportunities for the sprinters left in this year’s Giro d’Italia, Alessandro Petacchi (Lampre-ISD) has joined the list of sprinters who are heading home early. Like today’s winner Mark Cavendish (HTC-Highroad), the sight of the Dolomite mountains on the horizon has made the Ale-Jet’s further participation in the race largely pointless.
"My ‘corsa rosa’ has finished in Ravenna,” said Petacchi. “I had come to the Giro to give my support to [Michele] Scarponi, and I did it willingly, while also being able to take my own chances of victory.
“I took one victory, and got other good results, honouring the race in every stage.”
Over some of the hilliest stages so far, including the stage to Mount Etna on Sunday, the cycling world has been treated to the unfamiliar sight of Petacchi working on the front of the peloton, on behalf of teammate Scarponi. With only mountain stages and the last day time trial left in the race though, Petacchi’s usefulness to the team would have been limited, and might use up energy that he could use later in the season.
“The next stages wouldn’t have given me any chance to be helpful to the team,” he explained, “and taking account of the many other commitments that await me in the rest of the season, I decided to stop. I will return to racing at the Tour of Slovenia.”
Petacchi has worn the red points jersey since stage two, the race’s first road stage (although Alberto Contador (Saxo Bank-SunGard) briefly led the classification after his stage win on Mount Etna, but couldn’t wear both); with little chance of a result in any of the subsequent stages though, he would have little chance of taking it all the way to the race finish in Milan.
With nothing but mountains from here on, it’s more than likely that a climber will win the jersey, as sometimes happens at the Giro.
In the sprint into Ravenna, Petacchi was one of only a dozen or so riders to make it past a crash on the final corner of the stage. He launched his sprint at the same time as Mark Cavendish (HTC-Columbia) but was unable to match the Manxman on the way to the line.
“As for the sprint [in today’s stage],” he said. “I tried to beat Cavendish with my head, but his legs were exceptional."
Alongside Petacchi, lead out man Danilo Hondo will also quit the race tonight.