Alessandro Petacchi's cobbled classics' campaign may have to wait till Scheldeprijs, with the Italian ruled out of Gent-Wevelgem due to illness. The Lampre-ISD sprinter has been struggling with a flu since Milan-San Remo, and missed last Friday's E3 Prijs for the same reason.
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The team will now focus their efforts on supporting their other fast men, Gregor Bole and Danilo Hondo.
"Gent-Wevelgem is a tough race but it's one of the few classics that you can really hope for a sprint," said Lampre-ISD sporting director Fabrizio Bontempi. "Missing Alessandro is a loss, but we have other options and we'll be trying for success with Bole and Hondo."
Lampre-ISD are yet to win a race in 2012, though they have come close with Petacchi who recorded two top-3 finishes in January at the Tour Down Under.
The Lampre-ISD team for Gent-Wevelgem is: Grega Bole (Slo), Vitaliy Buts (Ukr), Davide Cimolai (Ita), Massimo Graziato (Ita), Danilo Hondo (Ger), Dmytro Krivtsov (Ukr), Davide Viganò (Ita)