Oct 26, 2005
Petacchi and Bartoli Recon Flanders
AleJet Petacchi is doing a bit of homework these days. Instead of going off to a vacation hotspot, he and pal Michele Bartoli are on a recon mission in Belgium. Petacchi made some announcements recently that he would like to win the Tour of Flanders. Michele Bartoli is a former winner of the Tour of Flanders and is giving a helping hand to pal Petacchi. AleJet wants to expand his horizons, perhaps inspired by new teammate Erik Zabel.
I feel the need to look for new challenges. I don’t want to be the guy who only wins stages in the Grand Tours. Next year I will start with the objective of winning San Remo, but Flanders is at the same level. I am also looking at races such as Hamburg, Paris-Tours, and Gent Wevelgem. Michele is someone who can help me with those objectives. We have been friends since when he was on Mapei. Even if we live far apart, we still keep in touch during important times. Michele has raced in Belgium and won almost all of the Belgian races except for Roubaix. His experience will help me understand what it takes to win.