Alessandro Petacchi would prefer Mark Cavendish as a main lead-out man for 2013
Alessandro Petacchi has decided to extend his stay with Team Lampre-ISD for one more year after he joined the team back in 2010.
The cyclist has noted that he would prefer to have Mark Cavendish as a lead-out man for himself in the season ahead.
Petacchi marked his professional debut with Team Scrigno-Blue Storm in 1996 and rode with the team until 1999.
He also represented Team Fassa Bortolo (2000-05), Team Milram (2006-08), and Team LPR Brakes-Ballan (2008-09) before accepting an offer from the Italian team in 2010.
However, Mark is still under contract with Team Sky until 2014 and even though he has started negotiating with Team Manager David Brailsford, his future team is not yet finalised.
It is believed that several professional cycling teams are interested to have the 2011 UCI Road World Champion but nothing can be done until the British team releases him.
Team Omega Pharma-Quick Step has also shown interest to hire the Manxman as reported earlier, but the Belgian team cannot really do much until Team Sky let Cavendish go.
"I spoke a bit with Cavendish, but one of the problems was that he still didn’t know where he was going," Petacchi told Cyclingnews in Beijing.
"We met at a criterium in Belgium and I asked him if these rumours about him leaving Sky were true”.
“He told me that he might be leaving and asked me what I was doing, so I said that my contract was expiring and that we could talk if he was interested”.
"I still had the intention of continuing as a rider, but if I ride, I want to ride well or at least I want to have the right stimulus”.
The 38-year-old could not really do justice with his talent as his only admirable performances in the current season include three stages and a point’s classifications victory at the Bayern-Rundfahrt 2012.
Petacchi is currently testing his legs at the last World Tour race of the season, the Tour of Beijing 2012, where grabbing some significant UCI points towards the end of the season is his major concern.
Only time will tell, if the Italian manages to find the right form at the last race of the season as he sets his eyes at the Tour of Beijing podium.
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