34 Facts About Alessandro Petacchi

Alessandro Petacchi was born on 3 January 1974 and is an Italian former professional road racing cyclist, who rode professionally between 1996 and 2015.

Alessandro Petacchi's career spanned over 18 years during which he earned 183 victories.

In 2007, Alessandro Petacchi was banned from cycling and had his results achieved disqualified for doping.

Alessandro Petacchi rode his first Grand Tour at the Vuelta a Espana in 1997, where his best finish was 6th on stage 2.

Alessandro Petacchi 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.

Alessandro Petacchi later retired from the race on stage 18.

Alessandro Petacchi 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.

Alessandro Petacchi was initially assigned as Fabio Baldato's lead-out man at that year's Vuelta.

Alessandro Petacchi 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.

Alessandro Petacchi came very close on winning a stage several times during the Giro d'Italia, where he got two second places and one third place.

Alessandro Petacchi came to the Vuelta with ambitions to win some stages and the points classification, where he won a stage, but ultimately became second in the points classification beaten by Erik Zabel.

Alessandro Petacchi ended the year by being a part of the winning Italian lead-out train for Cipollini in the Road World Championship in Zolder.

Alessandro Petacchi won his first Giro stage on the first stage, beating the world champion Mario Cipollini in a head-to-head sprint.

Alessandro Petacchi 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.

Alessandro Petacchi lost the jersey on the first mountain stage in stage 7.

Alessandro Petacchi 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.

Alessandro Petacchi won five stages and became the third rider ever, who have won a stage at each Grand Tour in a single year.

Alessandro Petacchi 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.

Alessandro Petacchi bounced back in the Vuelta by winning four stages.

Alessandro Petacchi started his 2005 season early by winning GP Costa Degli Etruschi and several stages of Vuelta an Andalucia.

Alessandro Petacchi continued his great form by winning Milano-San Remo.

Alessandro Petacchi had the better of a mass sprint, beating Danilo Hondo, Thor Hushovd, Stuart O'Grady and Oscar Freire.

Alessandro Petacchi later won four stages of the Giro and five stages and the points classification of the Vuelta.

In July 2005, Alessandro Petacchi announced that, following the decision to disband Fassa Bortolo, he would join Domina Vacanze for the 2006 season.

Alessandro Petacchi withdrew from the 2006 Giro d'Italia after crashing during the third stage.

Alessandro Petacchi had finished the stage with a broken kneecap.

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

Alessandro Petacchi was banned from 1 November 2007 to 31 August 2008, and 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, including five Giro d'Italia stage wins.

Alessandro Petacchi 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.

In January 2015 it emerged that Alessandro 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, Alessandro Petacchi announced his second retirement from the sport in June 2015.

On 14 May 2019, Alessandro Petacchi was named by the French newspaper Le Monde as an alleged client of doctor Mark Schmidt, who administered illegal blood transfusion for the purpose of performance enhancement to athletes in what has become known as Operation Aderlass.

Alessandro Petacchi denied the accusations, but was nevertheless provisionally suspended by the UCI.

Alessandro Petacchi subsequently stepped down from his role as commentator for Italian state television RAI.