Petacchi to skip Tour, focus on Vuelta and World's

procycling.com | Alessandro Petacchi opts for Worlds over Tour de France

The world's fastest closer will skip the Tour de France this year.

Alessandro Petacchi, who won 4 stages of the 2003 Tour but faltered in 2004, will instead focus on winning the biggest one-day race in the world, the road World Championship, this year in Madrid. Petacchi will also race (but probably not finish) the Vuelta a España, which finishes one week before Worlds.

Petacchi, who set a record last year with 9 (!!!) stage wins at the Giro d'Italia, will also contest the Italian grand tour in May.