Mario Cipollini has ended his contract with the US-based Rock Racing team and confirmed he will not ride in Saturday's Milan-San Remo race.

The Italian sprint specialist made a comeback at the Tour of California in February after almost three years out of the sport with plans to become the manager of a Rock Racing team based in Europe in 2009.

He was hoping to celebrate his 41st birthday by riding Milan-San Remo, which he won in 2002, but has announced the end of his contract with the team.

"Unfortunately I've had to end my relationship with the American Rock Racing team that started a few months ago," he said.

"The idea of riding Milan-San Remo made sense if it was linked to a wider project of building and managing a new team and my return to racing was part of the project to create a dream team. Despite a contract, this hasn't happened for reasons out of my control.

"I deny the rumours circulating that I might ride Milan-San Remo with another team because as I said, riding Milan-San Remo would have made sense if it was linked to a wider plan of management in the future."

Nobody from the Rock Racing team was available for comment.

During his career Cipollini won 189 races, including the world road race championship in 2002.

Reuters