Alessandro Petacchi

Alessandro Petacchi

Petacchi at the 2015 Brabantse Pijl.
Personal information
Full name	Alessandro Petacchi
Nickname	AleJet
Born	(1974-01-03) 3 January 1974 La Spezia, Italy
Height	1.84 m (6 ft 0 in)
Weight	75 kg (165 lb; 11.8 st)
Team information
Current team	Southeast Pro Cycling
Discipline	Road
Role	Rider
Rider type	Sprinter
Professional team(s)
1996–1999	Scrigno-Blue Storm
2000–2005	Fassa Bortolo
2006–2008	Team Milram
2008–2009	LPR Brakes-Ballan
2010–2013	Lampre-Farnese Vini
2013–2014	Omega Pharma-Quick Step
2015–	Southeast Pro Cycling
Major wins
Grand Tours Tour de France Points classification (2010) 6 individual stages (2003, 2010) Giro d'Italia Points classification (2004) 22 individual stages (2003–2011) Vuelta a España Points classification (2005) 20 individual stages (2000–2010) One-day races and Classics Milan – San Remo (2005) Paris–Tours (2007) Scheldeprijs (2009)
Infobox last updated on 7 January 2015

Alessandro Petacchi (born 3 January 1974 in La Spezia, Liguria) is an Italian professional road racing cyclist, who rides for the Southeast Pro Cycling team.^[1] A specialist sprinter, Petacchi has won 48 grand tour stages with wins of the points jersey in the Giro d'Italia in 2004, the Vuelta a España in 2005 and the Tour de France in 2010. He also won the classics Milan – San Remo in 2005^[2] and Paris-Tours in 2007.^[3] His career spanned over 18 years during which he earned 183 victories.^[4]

In 2007, Petacchi was banned from cycling and had his results achieved disqualified for doping. The court later said that he had not cheated on purpose but had not taken enough care when consuming his legal asthma drug.^[5] He announced his retirement as a lead sprinter on 23 April 2013, and terminated his contract at Lampre-Merida,^[4][6] but is now a lead-out man.^[7] He rejoined the professional peloton in August 2013, joining the Omega Pharma-Quick Step squad.^[8]

Career

Petacchi turned professional in 1996, and rode for a number of teams. In 2006 he moved to Team Milram with sprinter Erik Zabel, following the disbanding of Fassa Bortolo. His explosive speed won him stages in all three of the Grand Tours. In 2004 he won a record nine stages at the Giro d'Italia, which resulted in winning the points classification. He won his first classic in 2005, Milan – San Remo. He had the better of a mass sprint, beating Danilo Hondo, Thor Hushovd, Stuart O'Grady and Óscar Freire.^[2]

He withdrew from the 2006 Giro d'Italia after crashing during the third stage. He had finished the stage with a broken kneecap.^[9] In 2007, he won five stages in the Giro d'Italia, bringing his tally of ProTour victories to 21 and making him the rider with most UCI ProTour victories. During that season, he registered a success of prestige in Paris-Tours. With support from his teammate Erik Zabel, Petacchi was the victor in the mass gallop, with Francesco Chicchi and Oscar Freire rounding up the podium.^[3]

In 2010, he won the first and fourth stages of the Tour de France. Before going on to complete the grand slam as he won the green sprinters jersey to complete the feat at all the grand tours. In so doing he was the 1st person to complete the feat since 1999 and the first Italian to win the points classification in the Tour de France since 1968.^[10]

Doping allegations

After a non-negative result for the asthma drug salbutamol, which Petacchi had clearance to use, he was placed on non-active status and missed the 2007 Tour de France.^[11] Petacchi was absolved when the Italian Cycling Federation ruled that overuse of Salbutamol was human error.^[12]

On 6 May 2008, the Court of Arbitration for Sport banned Petacchi until the end of August, applied retroactively from November. It said all competitive results obtained during the 2007 Giro d'Italia shall be disqualified with all of the resulting consequences including forfeiture of any medals, points and prizes. Results after 31 October 2007 and during his ban were disqualified including five Giro d'Italia stage wins. The court said Petacchi had not intended to cheat and that it was likely that he had inadvertently consumed too much medication, but he had not exercised "utmost caution."^[13] The case was considered controversial,^[14] as it kept Petacchi from starting the Tour de France as he had planned^[15] and for the court ruling that he should be suspended despite acknowledging that he had not cheated. Petacchi maintained that he had done no wrong.^[16]

As a result of this, on 16 May 2008, Petacchi was fired by Team Milram.^[17] After his suspension he joined LPR Brakes-Ballan.

LPR Brakes and beyond

After winning a few minor races in 2008, Petacchi started 2009 strongly by winning the Scheldeprijs Vlaanderen semi-classic race. He was selected to ride the Giro d'Italia and won the second and third stages, wearing the pink jersey on stage 3 and the cyclamen jersey on stages 2 through 5.^[18]

Petacchi signed with Lampre-Farnese Vini for the 2010 season.^[19] He announced his retirement after the 2013 Paris-Roubaix, citing a lack of motivation to continue as a lead sprinter. However he subsequently expressed a desire to take up an offer from the Omega Pharma-Quick Step team to ride as a lead-out man for Mark Cavendish, which he said was made to him days after his retirement. The contract offer was blocked by the UCI as it forbids riders from transferring from one team to another mid-season.^[20] In July 2013 Patrick Lefevere announced that Petacchi would be joining Omega Pharma-Quick Step from the start of August on a 14-month contract.^[8] On 12 April 2014 he got his first victory for his new team at Grand Prix Pino Cerami and also his first victory since 2012. In January 2015 it emerged that Petacchi would ride for Southeast Pro Cycling in 2015.^[1]

Palmares

Grand Tour General Classification results timeline

Grand Tour	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014
Giro	92	—	94	WD	97	100	WD	104	—	121	WD	WD	—	—	WD
Tour	—	97	—	WD	WD	—	—	—	—	—	150	107	WD	—	148
Vuelta	WD	—	94	120	WD	88	WD	127	—	—	WD	100	—	—	—

WD = Withdrew; In Progress = IP

See also

• List of doping cases in cycling

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Alessandro Petacchi.

• Alessandro Petacchi profile at Cycling Archives

Sporting positions
Preceded by Óscar Freire	Winner of Milan – San Remo 2005	Succeeded by Filippo Pozzato

Riders on Etixx-Quick Step Julian Alaphilippe Tom Boonen Maxime Bouet Gianluca Brambilla Mark Cavendish David de la Cruz Michał Gołaś Iljo Keisse Michał Kwiatkowski Yves Lampaert Nikolas Maes Tony Martin Gianni Meersman Mark Renshaw Fabio Sabatini Pieter Serry Zdeněk Štybar Niki Terpstra Matteo Trentin Rigoberto Urán Petr Vakoč Guillaume Van Keirsbulck Stijn Vandenbergh Martin Velits Julien Vermote Carlos Verona Łukasz Wiśniowski Manager: Patrick Lefévère

Tour de France winners of the Points classification 1953 Fritz Schär 1954 Ferdinand Kübler 1955–1956 Stan Ockers 1957 Jean Forestier 1958 Jean Graczyk 1959 André Darrigade 1960 Jean Graczyk 1961 André Darrigade 1962 Rudi Altig 1963 Rik Van Looy 1964–1965 Jan Janssen 1966 Willy Planckaert 1967 Jan Janssen 1968 Franco Bitossi 1969 Eddy Merckx 1970 Walter Godefroot 1971–1972 Eddy Merckx 1973 Herman van Springel 1974 Patrick Sercu 1975 Rik Van Linden 1976 Freddy Maertens 1977 Jacques Esclassan 1978 Freddy Maertens 1979 Bernard Hinault 1980 Rudy Pevenage 1981 Freddy Maertens 1982–1983 Sean Kelly 1984 Frank Hoste 1985 Sean Kelly 1986 Eric Vanderaerden 1987 Jean-Paul van Poppel 1988 Eddy Planckaert 1989 Sean Kelly 1990 Olaf Ludwig 1991 Djamolidine Abdoujaparov 1992 Laurent Jalabert 1993–1994 Djamolidine Abdoujaparov 1995 Laurent Jalabert 1996–2001 Erik Zabel 2002 Robbie McEwen 2003 Baden Cooke 2004 Robbie McEwen 2005 Thor Hushovd 2006 Robbie McEwen 2007 Tom Boonen 2008 Óscar Freire 2009 Thor Hushovd 2010 Alessandro Petacchi 2011 Mark Cavendish 2012–2014 Peter Sagan

Giro d'Italia winners of the Points classification 1966 Gianni Motta 1967 Dino Zandegù 1968 Eddy Merckx 1969–70 Franco Bitossi 1971 Marino Basso 1972 Roger De Vlaeminck 1973 Eddy Merckx 1974–75 Roger De Vlaeminck 1976–1978 Francesco Moser 1979 Giuseppe Saronni 1980–1981 Giuseppe Saronni 1982 Francesco Moser 1983 Giuseppe Saronni 1984 Urs Freuler 1985 Johan Van der Velde 1986 Guido Bontempi 1987–1988 Johan Van der Velde 1989 Giovanni Fidanza 1990 Gianni Bugno 1991 Claudio Chiappucci 1992 Mario Cipollini 1993 Adriano Baffi 1994 Djamolidine Abdoujaparov 1995 Tony Rominger 1996 Fabrizio Guidi 1997 Mario Cipollini 1998 Mariano Piccoli 1999 Laurent Jalabert 2000 Dimitri Konyshev 2001 Massimo Strazzer 2002 Mario Cipollini 2003 Gilberto Simoni 2004 Alessandro Petacchi 2005–2006 Paolo Bettini 2007 Danilo Di Luca 2008 Daniele Bennati 2009 Denis Menchov 2010 Cadel Evans 2011 Michele Scarponi 2012 Joaquim Rodríguez 2013 Mark Cavendish 2014 Nacer Bouhanni

Vuelta a España winners of the Points classification 1945 Delio Rodríguez 1955 Fiorenzo Magni 1956 Rik Van Steenbergen 1957 Vicente Iturat 1958 Salvador Botella 1959 Rik van Looy 1960 Arthur Decabooter 1961 Antonio Suárez 1962 Rudi Altig 1963 Bas Maliepaard 1964 José Pérez-Francés 1965 Rik van Looy 1966 Jos van der Vleuten 1967–68 Jan Janssen 1969 Raymond Steegmans 1970 Guido Reybrouck 1971 Cyrille Guimard 1972 Domingo Perurena 1973 Eddy Merckx 1974 Domingo Perurena 1975 Miguel María Lasa 1976 Dietrich Thurau 1977 Freddy Maertens 1978 Ferdi Van Den Haute 1979 Fons De Wolf 1980 Sean Kelly 1981 Francisco Javier Cedena 1982 Stefan Mutter 1983 Marino Lejarreta 1984 Guido Van Calster 1985–86 Sean Kelly 1987 Alfonso Gutierrez 1988 Sean Kelly 1989 Malcolm Elliott 1990–91 Uwe Raab 1992 Djamolidine Abdoujaparov 1993 Tony Rominger 1994–97 Laurent Jalabert 1998 Fabrizio Guidi 1999 Frank Vandenbroucke 2000 Roberto Heras 2001 José María Jiménez 2002–04 Erik Zabel 2005 Alessandro Petacchi 2006 Thor Hushovd 2007 Daniele Bennati 2008 Greg Van Avermaet 2009 André Greipel 2010 Mark Cavendish 2011 Bauke Mollema 2012–13 Alejandro Valverde 2014 John Degenkolb