Cipollini: Ciao Primavera
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ByEurosport
Published 20/03/2005 at 17:33 GMT
Three days ahead of his 38th birthday, Italy's greatest-ever sprinter Mario Cipollini said he had raced in his last Milan-San Remo. Relegated into 35th place, Cipollini faded in Saturday's finale behind the man who dethroned him as Italy's sprint king, Al
Eurosport
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"It's the last time that I see the Via Roma wearing the outfit of a racer," the charismatic Tuscan admitted ahead of his birthday next Tuesday.
But the former world champion, who won the Primavera at 35 in 2002, stopped short of officially announcing his retirement date.
"I'm not nostalgic, but one has to know when to stop. At least for the time being from riding Milan-San Remo. For the rest, we'll see later... "
Cipollini kept pace throughout and paid tribute to Petacchi's "great achievement":
"I'm happy with what I did, but today [Saturday], it was really impossible to beat Petacchi because his team did some remarkable work. I'd nonetheless gotten into his wheel, but at the outset of the final straightaway [Erik] Zabel got between us and made me lose my chance."
Cipollini turned heads when he outsprinted a boxed-in Petacchi two weeks ago in the Giro di Lucca for the 166th win of his career but was never a threat either during Tirreno-Adriatico or in Saturday's first major World Cup classic of the season.
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