October 3, 2003 – Mario Cipollini, the defending Road World Cycling Champion announced today that he's opting out of the Hamilton 2003 Road Worlds. The Domina Vacanze rider made the announcement at a press conference in Milan and will not be joining his 12 teammates on the start line, explaining that the Hamilton course was too difficult for his style of racing. Recently Cipollini made only a cameo race appearance at the Vuelta as well.