Ale-Jet wants to make the World Championships despite being excluded from Italian team
The Italian cycling federation has recently announced that it will not take riders to World Championships if they had been suspended for doping in the past. Alessandro Petacchi's 2007 suspension for salbutamol will eliminate him from the Italian team under the new rule. Petacchi is considering switching nationalities in order to race for a different country and one of the possibilities is Kazakhstan.
The top sprinter may become a rival of the squadra azzura in Copenhagen. "I could well race against Italy," he told La Gazzetta dello Sport. "I am really thinking about it, I can tell you that," Petacchi said.
He still has to do his homework. "I am not sure if it is possible, I haven't informed myself directly yet." He has others who do the footwork for him. "There are people who study the question for me." The Italian paper said that Kazakhstan would be a possibility for Petacchi. Other Italian riders who would have to be left home are Ivan Basso, Danilo di Luca, Michele Scarponi, and Stefano Garzelli.