Petacchi wins in Italy

With his LPR Brakes team barred from racing at Paris-Tours, Alessandro Petacchi couldn’t defend his title from last year’s “sprinter’s classic.”

Petacchi won on Sunday anyway, sprinting to victory in the 12th GP Beghelli in Italy ahead of Mihail Khalilov (Flaminia), with Giuseppe Palumbo (Acqua e Sapone) coming across third.

LPR Brakes was excluded from Paris-Tours because the team didn’t meet requirements for the UCI’s biological passport program, meaning Petacchi – who won the French classic last year with Milram – wouldn’t be able to defend his title.

“When I first heard the news, I was really disappointed,” Petacchi said. “I keep thinking that it was unfair. In any case, I won here for my teammates. They have been extraordinary.”

LPR was quickly handed an invite for the Italian semi-classic, one of the warm-up races in northern Italy ahead of next weekend’s Giro di Lombardia. Such names as Cadel Evans (Silence-Lotto) and Damiano Cunego (Lampre) were among the 168 riders from 24 squads.

The race featured an early breakaway, but the pack came back together in time to let “Ale-Jet” dash to what’s his fifth official win on the 2008 season (eight other wins were voided as part of Petacchi’s controversial one-year racing ban, which ended Aug. 31, for high levels of Salbutamol dating from tests dating back to the 2007 Giro d’Italia).

The 34-year-old Petacchi spoke to reporters about his future.

“I will only race the Giro del Piemonte and that’s it. My son is five months old and I cannot do long trips. I want to start preparing for next season,” he said. “For an accident and the ban, the last season was only half a year so I still have a lot to give. I will be 35 in January, but I fell younger. I think I can still be a protagonist for a long time.”

FILED UNDER: Road