Doping Allegations
After a non-negative result for the asthma drug salbutamol, which Petacchi had clearance to use, he was placed on non-active status and missed the 2007 Tour de France. Petacchi was absolved when the Italian Cycling Federation ruled that overuse of Salbutamol was human error.
On 6 May 2008, the Court of Arbitration for Sport banned Petacchi until the end of August, applied retroactively from November. It said all competitive results obtained during the 2007 Giro d'Italia shall be disqualified with all of the resulting consequences including forfeiture of any medals, points and prizes. Results after 31 October 2007 and during his ban were disqualified including five Giro d'Italia stage wins. The court said Petacchi had not intended to cheat and that it was likely that he had inadvertently consumed too much medication, but he had not exercised "utmost caution." The case was considered controversial, as it kept Petacchi from starting the Tour de France as he had planned and for the court ruling that he should be suspended despite acknowledging that he had not cheated. Petacchi maintained that he had done no wrong.
As a result of this, on 16 May 2008, Petacchi was fired by Team Milram. After his suspension he joined LPR Brakes-Ballan.
Read more about this topic: Alessandro Petacchi