Italian sprinter, Alessandro Petacchi, has signed a contract with Lampre-NGC for the next two years. He will leave Fabio Bordona🐼li's LPR Brakes team one year earl🐈ier than scheduled.

"I am splitting with LPR and Bordonali on good terms, but I couldn’t compete in races I wanted to," Petacchi told La Gazzetta dello Sport Saturday.

His wins and Danilo Di Luca's second overall were a success for the second-division team 𒆙of Fabio Bordonali. But Bordonali struggled with non-invites to several important races and the recent news that Di Luca doped during the Giro. Di Luca faces a likely two-year suspension for using banned blood booster Erythropoietin (EPO) - CERA.

Petacchi won the sprinters' classic Paris-Tours in 2007💦 and a total 19 stages of the Vuelta a España, but LPR Brakes will miss both races this year.

"Up until after the Giro I had a good season,ও and won 10 races. I was competi༺tive," said Petacchi. "Not being invited [to the big races] is belittling."

Lampre-NGC is a first divi☂sion ProTour team and races all of cycling's top races. Petacchi believes he can win races for the team 💫in the next two years despite emerging sprinters like Mark Cavendish and Tyler Farrar.

"I’m looking forward to the next two world championships, Melbourne and Copenhagen. Mario Cipollini did not win [Worlds🍎] until he wꦅas 35."

Petacchi has been Italy's leading sprinter since the retirement of Cipollini. He has won 21 Giro d'Italia and🍃 four Tour de France stages, in addition to his Vuelta a España stages. He won Italy's biggest one-day race in 2005, the Milano-Sanremo.

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