I missed this little blurb that was on cyclenews a couple of days ago! 😠
No Tour for Petacchi According to newspaper L'Equipe, Alessandro Petacchi will not ride the Tour de France this year. The Italian star sprinter from Fassa Bortolo will skip the French stage race in order to participate in the Vuelta a España, which will be a better preparation for his season's goal, the World Championships in Madrid. This year's course in the Spanish capital is likely to finish in a bunch sprint.
I think he should go for all three tours again like he did the last two years (ok, last year he crashed out of the tour, but still!). 😠
I don`t know how July`s Tour can have negative affects on October`s WC, but probably he knows that! It`s strange that the best sprinter isn`t participating in the best race in the world! It`s the same as if Lance won`t ride it few years ago..
I on the other hand, think it is great that once in a while an important rider turns down the TDF invitation. What about missing invitations to Pantani and Cipollini in recent years? It works both ways. Certainly the failure to invite Cipollini is more to the point, that LeBlanc has not respected the sprinters as he should.
Virenque said:
I don`t know how July`s Tour can have negative affects on October`s WC, but probably he knows that! It`s strange that the best sprinter isn`t participating in the best race in the world! It`s the same as if Lance won`t ride it few years ago..
I on the other hand, think it is great that once in a while an important rider turns down the TDF invitation. What about missing invitations to Pantani and Cipollini in recent years? It works both ways. Certainly the failure to invite Cipollini is more to the point, that LeBlanc has not respected the sprinters as he should.
