Alessandro Petacchi retires from professional cycling

Alessandro Petacchi in green, Tour de France 2010 stage 1

published 23 April 2013

Italian sprinter Alessandro Petacchi announced his retirement on Tuesday after 18 years as a professional rider.

Issuing a statement via his Lampre-Merida team's website, Petacchi said: "My career has been full of satisfactions and enriched by all the most important victories that a rider like me could ever aim at.

His career hasn't been without controversy. In 2007 he returned a ‘non-negative' test for excess levels of salbutamol. Although Petacchi held a therapeutic excemption certificate for the drug, the level was well above the allowed upper limit. He was subsequently suspended by his Milram team and handed a back-dated 12-month ban. He returned to competition in 2008 with LPR Brakes and was signed by Lampre for 2009, where he has been ever since.

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Nigel Wynn worked as associate editor on CyclingWeekly.com, he worked almost single-handedly on the Cycling Weekly website in its early days. His passion for cycling, his writing and his creativity, as well as his hard work and dedication, were the original driving force behind the website’s success. Without him, CyclingWeekly.com would certainly not exist on the size and scale that it enjoys today. Nigel sadly passed away, following a brave battle with a cancer-related illness, in 2018. He was a highly valued colleague, and more importantly, an exceptional person to work with - his presence is sorely missed.

Alessandro Petacchi retires from professional cycling

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