Alessandro Petacchi of Omega Pharma-Quick Step certainly enjoyed an important role he played in yesterday’s success of Mark Cavendish in Tirreno-Adriatico sixth stage, being the consequence of a great teamwork and rivals having been pulled out of contention combined. After giving a perfect lead out to the Manxman, the 40-year old Italian, after quickly assessing the situation, still managed to sprint for a second place and now is even more eager to play an important role as a part of the Belgian team’s roster for Milano-Sanremo.

It was a huge relief for the Omega Pharma-Quick Step to claim an emphatic victory in stage sixth following the beating they received a day before, when all their hopes for winning the general classification of Tirreno-Adriatico with young Michał Kwiatkowski were irrevocably crushed. Petacchi has recently shown an ability to share strong emotions as he was explicitly moved by winning his first ever team time trial with a team which brought him back from retirement last year, however, he remained rather restrained this time around and preferred to concentrate on a bigger picture.

Instead of offering a typical view on how the race was won, the 40-year old Italian rider – and at his best the most dominant sprinter a decade ago, immediately redirected his attention his one of the greatest goals of 2014 season as a Manxman’s lead-out man, Milano-Sanremo.

“I’ll have an important role in Milano-Sanremo,” he told VeloNews after Monday’s stage 6 at Tirreno-Adriatico.

Having no less than impressive 107 professional wins in his palmares, including 27, 20, and 6 stages of the Giro d’Italia, Vialta a Espana and Tour the France respectively, Petacchi emphasized that his Milano-Sanremo victory in 2005 is the one he cherishes most. Thus, Italian sprinter is eager to help Cavendish to succeed in this year’s edition of La Primavera, considered as the last sprinters-friendly one in the nearest future.

“It’s the most important race I won in my career, the race I cherish the most. If I can help my teammate win it then it will feel as if I’d won it myself.”

The Omega Pharma-Quick Step’s concept to combine forces of Mark Renshaw, Petacchi and Cavendish appeared to be an invincible one on a paper, however, some tensions were expected before the 2014 season kicked off in earnest. After an unspectacular showing in Dubai Tour the manager of the Belgian team, Patrick Lefevere acknowledged it has too take time to built a trust and common understanding between the main cogs of their lead out train, as the Italian and Australian present entirely different approaches to playing out the finale, not to mention life and cycling taken more globally.

It was also doubted whether Cavendish and Petacchi will be able to cooperate well together as it was reminded how riders were on each other’s throats during the 2011 Giro d’Italia, but it turns out that both settled for the Italian’s role as an experienced mentor for a younger sprinter.

“He was a young rider, I was a little bit of a veteran, but still I was able to beat him a couple of times. You have to have the muscles and to anticipate him,” Petacchi said.

“He’s sensitive. He feels the pressure, which you journalists make but that’s part of the game. I told him that. I think my experience, and [Mark] Renshaw’s helps, because we tell him, ‘Cavendish, you can’t let yourself not do the sprint. You can’t only think of the Tour de France. There are other important races before it where people expect you. Everyone will use those rides to judge you and talk well or badly about you. This is your job, your job is to win — not to just race.’”

With the Milano-Sanremo constantly on his mind, Petacchi was more focused on earlier parts of yesterday’s stage when Omega Pharma-Quick step had to prevail the ascents under the pressure created by Cannondale than on its finale, and the outcome was very positive in his assessment.

“Peter Sagan’s Cannondale team made a hard race on the last two climbs to put Marcel Kittel into trouble,” Petacchi said. “Mark honestly amazed me. It was a good test for Sanremo even if we have Tom Boonen, Michal Kwiatkowski. We can ride almost any type of race.”

He looked at the TV footage that was playing in the bus. He led out Cavendish, who remained seated for his sprint.

“When I start, I go very hard. When a rider remains seated, he has the good legs,” Petacchi said.

“But it’s not the sprint so much but how Mark went on the climbs. He defended himself really well. … The win was important for him, for his morale, and for the team’s. Now we are ready for Sanremo.”