Alessandro Petacchi

1996-1999: The early years

Petacchi turned professional in 1996 with Scrigno–Blue Storm. In the early years he won small races - most notably a stage in Tour de Langkawi in 1998 and the mountains classification in the same race the year after. Petacchi rode his first Grand Tour at the Vuelta a Espana in 1997, where his best finish was 6th on stage 2. He rode his first Giro in 1998, where he recorded his best finish with an impressive fourth on stage 3 and several other top 10 finishes during the race. He later retired from the race on stage 18.

2000-2002: Fassa Bortolo

In 2000, Petacchi signed for Fassa Bortolo. He got his breakthrough, when he won his first Grand Tour stage in Vuelta a Espana on stage 7 in a sprint where he beat Giovanni Lombardi in a bunch sprint. He was initially assigned as Fabio Baldato’s lead-out man at that year’s Vuelta. He won another stage later in stage 11. He ended the year with 9 victories.

2001 became a mediocre year for Petacchi in difference to 2000. He decided to go to the Tour for the first time in his career, where he recorded several top 10 finishes and fourth in the points classification.

Petacchi got a great start to his 2002 campaign, when he won a stage in Tour Méditerranéen and two stages in Paris-Nice, where he also wore the leader jersey for two days. He came very close on winning a stage several times during the Giro d'Italia, where he got two second places and one third place. On the last stage he lost to Mario Cipollini. He came to the Vuelta with ambitions to win some stages and the points classification, where he also won a stage, but ultimately became second in the points classification beaten by Erik Zabel. He ended the year by being a part of the winning Italian lead-out train for Cipollini in the Road World Championship in Zolder.

2003-2007: Domination in the sprints

Petacchi started the season strongly by winning Trofeo Luis Puig and a stage in both Vuelta Ciclista a la Comunidad Valenciana and Paris-Nice. He continued his form going into the Giro. He won his first Giro stage on the first stage, beating the world champion Mario Cipollini in a head-to-head sprint. The stage win also gave Petacchi the magila rosa. He wore the leader jersey in 5 days and was in all those days inside top 5 in every single stage and won two stages more in the process. He lost the jersey on the first mountain stage in stage 7. He later won three more stages in the race, bringing his Giro stage wins up to 6 stage wins, before leaving the race due to being outside the time limit on stage 18. He then rode Tour de France, where he won 4 stages - three stages in a row, before retiring on stage 7. He wore the green jersey, when he retired. After riding the Eneco Tour, he decided to ride the Vuelta. He won five stages and became the third rider ever, who have won a stage at each Grand Tour in a single year. He finished the season with 24 victories.

Petacchi started his 2004 season with three stage wins in Tirreno-Adriatico and a fourth place finish in Milan-San Remo. Then he arrived to the Giro and won a record nine stages, the points classification and the Azzurri d'Italia classification. He attempted to recreate his 2003 season by participate in the Tour, however it became a disappointment and dropped out on stage 6 due to injuries. He bounced back in the Vuelta by winning four stages.

Petacchi started his 2005 season early by winning GP Costa Degli Etruschi and several stages of Vuelta a Andalucia. He then won three stages of Tirreno-Adriatico and finished 2nd in the general classification. He continued his great form by winning Milano-San Remo. He had the better of a mass sprint, beating Danilo Hondo, Thor Hushovd, Stuart O'Grady and Óscar Freire. He later won four stages of the Giro and five stages and the points classification of the Vuelta.

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. He withdrew from the 2006 Giro d'Italia after crashing during the third stage. He had finished the stage with a broken kneecap. It was the first time that Petacchi did not win a stage in the Giro since 2002.

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.

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. Petacchi was absolved when the Italian Cycling Federation ruled that overuse of Salbutamol was human error.

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." The case was considered controversial, as it kept Petacchi from starting the Tour de France as he had planned 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.

As a result of this, on 16 May 2008, Petacchi was fired by Team Milram. 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.

Petacchi signed with Lampre–Farnese Vini for the 2010 season. Petacchi won that year the first and fourth stages of the Tour de France - his first stage wins in the race since 2003. 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.

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. 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. 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. However, after racing in that year's Giro at the age of 41 and being forced to withdraw from the race one day before its conclusion due to a virus, Petacchi announced his second retirement from the sport in June 2015.