Marco Pantani

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Marco Pantani (Cesena, Emilia-Romagna, January 13, 1970 – Rimini, Emilia-Romagna, February 14, 2004) was an Italian professional cyclist, winner of the 1998 Giro d'Italia and the Tour de France of the same year.

Nicknamed "The Pirate", he obtained his best results in cycling events by stage and was, until 2014 -the year in which Vincenzo Nibali triumphed-, the last Italian in to win the Tour de France (in 1998, 33 years after Felice Gimondi) and the last cyclist to win the Giro d'Italia and the Tour de France in the same year (this was previously achieved by Fausto Coppi in 1949 and 1952, Jacques Anquetil in 1964, Eddy Merckx in 1970, 1972 and 1974, Bernard Hinault in 1982 and 1985, Stephen Roche in 1987 and Miguel Induráin in 1992 and 1993). He is considered one of the best climbers in the history of cycling.

Biography

At 1.72 meters tall and 57 kilos in weight, Pantani had the classic type of climber, as he would demonstrate from then on in his career. He made his grand tour debut in the 1993 Giro d'Italia, which he abandoned, but had a superb performance in 1994, where he finished second behind Eugeni Berzin and ahead of then-three-time Tour champion Miguel Induráin. Two months later, he would debut in the Tour de France, finishing third in the final classification. But, after having managed to win his first two stages in the French round of Tour 95, just as his career was about to take off, Pantani suffered a terrible collision with a car, during the Milan-Turin race in October 1995, which caused him a double leg fracture, threatening the premature end of his professional career. This caused him to miss the entire 1996 season and the beginning of the 1997 season.

Pantani ascending the Alpe d'Huez in the 1997 Tour

In the spring of 1997, already recovered from the serious injury, he returned to competition, but during the Giro he suffered a fall when a cat crossed his path, which caused him to withdraw from the race. In that year's Tour he starred in an intense fight for the yellow jersey; although he was unbeatable in the mountains, Jan Ullrich, far superior in the time trials, knew how to limit the time lost in the Alps and Pyrenees, achieving the final victory and relegating Pantani to third place.

The following year (1998), Pantani finally managed to defeat Ullrich in the Tour by gaining an advantage over him of almost 9 minutes in the very long 15th stage (Grenoble-Les Deux Alpes), where Pantani began his attack in the port of Galibier. Although Ullrich tried to make up for lost time in the later stage, which reached Albertville (after ascent to the extremely tough Col de la Madeleine), the comeback was not possible and Pantani became the first Italian, since Felice Gimondi in 1965, to wear the yellow jersey in Paris. His achievement was remarkable, as for many years the Tour had been dominated by time trial specialists such as Miguel Induráin, Jan Ullrich and Bjarne Riis; Since the days of Pedro Delgado, no climber had been victorious, and his success, in a way, revived the legend of the mountain specialist.

The same year he had won a Giro that was not designed for him without a multitude of mountain stages. The advantage he gained in the Italian summits, where he won 2 stages, allowed him to finally overcome time trial specialists like Alex Zülle and Pável Tonkov.

In the 1999 Giro, after winning four stages and being the outstanding leader of the race, he was disqualified when high levels of hematocrit were observed in his blood, which suggested a case of doping with EPO, although this point could not be confirmed prove conclusively. In the 2000 Tour he rode with no chance of victory, though he did show glimpses of his quality in the mountains. In a one-on-one on the ascent to Mont Ventoux, he managed to escape with Lance Armstrong, who would be the final winner of the Tour. Upon reaching the finish line, Armstrong ceded the stage win to him; However, Pantani did not appreciate the gesture, causing bad relations between the two, aggravated by Armstrong referring to Pantani as the & # 34; Elephantine & # 34;, a nickname that he hated. This would be Pantani's penultimate victory, the last being, this time solo, another mountain stage on that same Tour. Despite those 2 stage victories in the Tour, El Pirata ended up retiring, completely morally sunk due to his alleged doping. From then on he barely competed again.

Cycling decline and death

Pantani Monument in Cesenatico.

Pantani Monument in Col du Galibier.

Pantani Monument in Imola.

Despite the doping accusation case, Pantani's popularity did not wane due to his explosive attacks that enlivened the race after years of domination by specialists in the time trial and restored to the mountain the prominence in the race that it once had.

He was considered by many to be the best professional climber of his generation, largely due to his victory in the Tour de France and the Giro d'Italia in 1998. The headband he used to wear on his shaved head and his attacking style on the bike earned him the nickname El Pirata. However, starting in 1999, his career was cut short by accusations of doping, which he always denied.

On February 14, 2004, Pantani was found dead in a hotel room in the Italian seaside town of Rimini, where he had arrived a few days earlier. The suspicion that he had committed suicide, after antidepressant drugs were found in the room (including some empty boxes and others started) was ruled out by the investigating prosecutor; however, it was not completely refuted. Marco Pantani was going through a depressive crisis. Two months earlier, the Spanish cyclist Chava Jiménez, a good friend of El Pirata, died under identical circumstances.

The autopsy gave the cause of death as cardiac arrest as a result of pulmonary and cerebral edema. On March 19, 2004, the official autopsy report on Pantani established that he died of a cocaine overdose. His addiction to this substance dated back to the fall of 1999, shortly after his expulsion from the Giro d'Italia, and he was known in his circle of friends. Many of these believe that El Pirata actually died before 2004, specifically, that morning in 1999 in the town of Madonna di Campiglio, where the penultimate stage of a Giro began that was practically doomed, since that the emotional and psychological blow that it caused the cyclist was tremendous and he never recovered.

In 2008, Pantani's mother explained her version of the events about her son's death in a book entitled Era il mio figlio ("It was my son").

On July 24, 2013, an investigative committee of the French Senate published a report containing the results of tests carried out in 2004 on blood and urine samples collected during the 1998 Tour de France. Pantani was associated with some of the samples that tested positive for EPO, like the other cyclists who accompanied him on the podium in that edition of the French race, Jan Ullrich and Bobby Julich.

In August 2014, the Rimini Prosecutor's Office reopened the investigation into the death of Marco Pantani, accepting the thesis of the Pantani family lawyer, according to which the cyclist was beaten and forced to drink cocaine diluted in water.

On March 14, 2016, an Italian court officially recognized that Pantani's 1999 positive test had been manipulated by the mafia to control and manipulate sports betting.