Marco Pantani

  

 Pantani and his famous stage win

                                                               Marco Pantani 

Factfile

1970: Born on 13 Jan in Cesena, Italy

1992: Makes professional debut

1995: Bronze in World Championships

1998: Won Giro d'Italia and Tour de France

1999: Thrown out of Giro for failing blood test

2003: Year spent battling for reputation in court. June - books into clinic for depression and drug use.

2004: Found dead, hotel, Rimini, Italy

I wanted to write a little bit about my Cycling hero, Marco Pantani who was without doubt both one of the most charismatic and yet perhaps one of the most fragile and tragic riders of the modern era. I was lucky enough to see the man in the flesh at the height of his career and during one of his greatest stages wins, a “tale to compare with the best in the history books.” Stage 15 of the 1998 Tour de France, 198km from Genoble to Les Deux Alpes including 2645m Col du Galibier.

The weather that day was terrible, more reminiscent of the English Moors than the usually baking summer sunshine in the French Alps.

Pantani perfecting the Blackbeard look

“Laurent Jalabert had cracked on the Télégraphe, blaming the weather ("The cold was killing me. I knew the stage would be tough, but I didn't realise how tough. I couldn't recover and my muscles wouldn't respond. My teeth were chattering on the descents and I felt like my circulation had stopped."). Jaja wasn't just making excuses, it really was a foul day to be riding a bike. Two riders, Fabrizio Guidi and José Luis Arrieta, had already abandoned the stage, suffering from hypothermia.”

At the start of the stage Pantani was over three minutes behind race leader and reigning champion, the German Jan Ullrich. By the end of the day Pantani would lead the race by over six minutes and was able to hold to enough of a time cushion to claim the yellow jersey in Paris.

 “Four kilometres before the summit of the Galibier, Pantani let his legs do the talking. As they climbed Galibier, Pantani watched and waited as the German wore himself out. he simply rode off the front of the group and disappeared into the fog and the drizzle and the crowds lining the climb. In those four kilometres Pantani put almost three minutes into Ullrich.”

“On the roof of the Tour Pantani paused to don a rain cape before facing into the fifteen kilometre descent to the foot of Les Deux Alpes” 

“When Pantani rode into the ski-station at Les Deux Alpes - arms spread, head raised, eyes closed - Ullrich was still four kilometres down the climb. By the time he crossed the line the German had ceded almost nine minutes to the Italian.” source

 I was standing there that day poorly dressed for the unexpectedly freezing cold of the Col. I stood shivering as the endless stream of motorbikes and team cars finally made way for the cyclists. The first to appear of course was my Hero, Pantani, slicing through the rain and spray and off into the valley below.

So what drew myself along with millions of others to celebrate the diminutive Italian? For me it was simply because he was “II Pirata” or the pirate. He was distinctive and individual in every way. He was a flyweight, the perfect build for a climber, Bald with protruding ears complete with earring.  This look was finished with goatee and Bandanna.

In the Saddle again Pantani was a pure individual. I still vividly remember his accelerations on the Mountain, exploding away from pack as if just fired from a gun.

Unfortunately as we came to find out Pantani’s brilliance was not quite all of his own making, abusing performance enhancing drugs, perhaps throughout his career.  It was his exclusion from the Giro 1999 as a result of failing a blood test that finally alerted the world to his transgressions and began Pantani’s rapid decline, developing a huge Cocaine habit, which culminated in his death aged just 34 alone in a motel, Valentine’s Day 2004.

Pantani’s story is excellently portrayed in  “The Death of Marco Pantani: An autobiography" (2006) by Matt Rendell. Rendell points to the many undiagnosed mental frailties from which Pantani suffered as major contributors to his downfall. As an athlete he was able to ignore his problems, once this focus was no longer there the lid was lifted on his many inner demons, to devastating effect. 

I fully acknowledge Pantani’s many faults. Though one partial apologia concerning doping is the well-trodden response: “they were all at it” weak of course, but from the “Festina” scandal (during the 1998 tour), where a masseur was found with a car full of performance enhancing drugs, to the present day, Where the on-going revelations concerning Lance Armstrong and his “most sophisticated, professionalised and successful doping programme that sport has ever seen". It’s clear that doping has been endemic within cycling for years.

(A saddle utilising Pantani’s nickname)

 Yet Pantani’s style, his charisma hooked me and so many others so much more than say an Armstrong ever did. And if the pirates’ exploits go onto to influence a future “clean” champion that would be a legacy that may help Marco to rest a little easier.

A documentary charting Pantani’s competitive life is scheduled to appear in cinemas next year, before the centenary edition of the Tour. ‘The Accidental Death of a Cyclist’ by renowned director James Erskine, who previous works include “One night in Turin” and “Senna”. Much like Erskine’s other work the Pantani film will feature race and news footage, with interviews of the pirate along with reconstructions on his most famous moments on the road.