Marco Pantani
Marco Pantani was an Italian road racing cyclist, widely regarded as one of the greatest climbing specialists in the history of the sport by measures of his legacy, credits from other riders, and records. He recorded the fastest ever climbs up the Tour's iconic venues of Mont Ventoux and Alpe d'Huez, and other cyclists including Lance Armstrong and Charly Gaul have hailed Pantani's climbing skills. He is the second to last rider and one of only eight to ever win the Tour de France – Giro d'Italia double, doing so in 1998. He is the sixth of seven Italians, after Ottavio Bottecchia, Gino Bartali, Fausto Coppi, Gastone Nencini and Felice Gimondi, and before Vincenzo Nibali to win the Tour de France.
Pantani's cycling style was off-the-saddle, and was a relentless climbing style. His early death caused by acute cocaine poisoning in 2004 has further turned the cyclist into a popular icon. The narrative was cultivated by Pantani, who picked the nickname "Il Pirata" because of his shaven head and the bandana and earrings he wore. At and, he was said to have the classic build for a mountain climber. His style has been contrasted with that of time-trialling experts such as the five-time Tour winner Miguel Induráin.
Although Pantani never tested positive during his career, his career was beset by doping allegations. In the 1999 Giro d'Italia, he was expelled due to his irregular blood values. Although he was disqualified for "health reasons", it was implied that Pantani's high haematocrit was the product of EPO use. Following later accusations, Pantani went into a severe depression from which he never fully recovered, ultimately leading to his death in 2004.
Early life and amateur career
Pantani was born on 13 January 1970 in Cesena, Romagna, the son of Ferdinando and Tonina. He joined the Fausto Coppi cycling club of Cesenatico at the age of eleven. As an amateur, he won the 1992 Girobio, the amateur version of the Giro d'Italia, after finishing third in 1990 and second in 1991.Professional career
1992–1996: Early years
His success at the Girobio led to his turning professional for the remainder of the 1992 season with Davide Boifava's. While signing the contract, barely above the minimum established, he asked Boifava what would happen if he were to win the Giro d'Italia or the Tour de France, requesting a change in the contract. He finished 12th in his first professional race, the Gran Premio Città di Camaiore. In 1993, his first full season as a professional, he finished fifth at the mountainous course of Giro del Trentino and debuted at the Giro d'Italia in order to help his team leader, Claudio Chiappucci. He was forced to abandon the race in the 18th stage due to tendinitis.In 1994, he finished fourth at the Giro del Trentino and the Giro di Toscana before his second participation at the Giro d'Italia, where he was supposed to help Chiappucci. He won two consecutive mountain stages, earning his first victory as a professional in the fourteenth stage to Merano. In the following stage to Aprica, which featured the renowned Stelvio Pass and the Mortirolo Pass, Pantani attacked at the base of Mortirolo and broke free at the Valico di Santa Cristina to win the stage at Aprica and place second in the overall classification. He ultimately finished the race behind Eugeni Berzin but ahead of Miguel Induráin, who had won the two previous Giros. That same year Pantani made his Tour de France debut, coming in third and winning the young rider classification along the way. In 1995, he was hit by a car while training, preventing him from riding the Giro, but he rode the Tour and won stages at Alpe d'Huez and Guzet-Neige. He also finished thirteenth and claimed his second successive best young rider prize. He also won a stage at the Tour de Suisse and finished third in the 1995 World Championships road race in Duitama, Colombia, behind Spaniards Abraham Olano and Miguel Induráin. Shortly after returning to Italy, he collided head-on with a car during the Italian Milano–Torino race, sustaining multiple fractures to the left tibia and fibula, injuries that threatened his career and forced him to miss most of the 1996 season.
1997: Move to Mercatone Uno
When Carrera Jeans manufacturers stopped sponsoring the Italian cycling team at the end of 1996, a new team based in Italy was formed with Marco Pantani as the team leader. Luciano Pezzi founded, taking with him as directeur sportifs Giuseppe Martinelli, Davide Cassani and Alessandro Giannelli and ten of the riders from Carrera. Pantani returned to the Giro in 1997, but he was injured when a black cat caused an accident in front of him during one of the first stages. Even though he completed the stage, he was treated at a hospital for a muscle injury in the same leg he had hurt in 1995. He returned to action at the 1997 Tour de France and won two stages in the Alps, establishing a record time for the climb of Alpe d'Huez and winning two days later at Morzine. Jan Ullrich won, with Pantani third behind Richard Virenque. In 1997, Pantani rode the final 14.5 km to L`Alpe d`Huez in 37'35" minutes, which is the record to this day based on 14.5 km. Since the actual climb is just 13.8 km long, Pantani's time in 1997 was 36'55" minutes based on 13.8 km. His personal record for 13.8 km was in 1995, when he rode the climb in 36'50" minutes, which remains the fastest ascent time to this day. He also holds the second and third fastest time at 36'55" in 1997 and 37'15" in 1994, followed by Lance Armstrong at 37'36" in 2004 and Jan Ullrich at 37'41" in 1997.1998: Giro and Tour wins
In 1998, Pantani was considered a favorite to win the Giro d'Italia. Other contenders included Alex Zülle, 1996 winner Pavel Tonkov and 1997 winner Ivan Gotti. Zülle won the initial prologue in Nice and also won the sixth stage to Lago Laceno, but Pantani recovered some time in the mountain stage to Piancavallo. Pantani lost further time to his main rivals during the fifteenth stage, an individual time trial in Trieste. By that point, Pantani faced a disadvantage of almost four minutes to Zülle before the Dolomites mountain stages and an individual time trial on the penultimate stage, a discipline that favored Zülle and Tonkov. In the seventeenth stage to Selva di Val Gardena, Pantani took the maglia rosa, the leader's jersey, for the first time in his career after attacking Zülle on the Marmolada climb. Although Pantani crossed the finish line behind Giuseppe Guerini, he finished over four minutes ahead of Zülle, maintaining an advantage of thirty seconds on the general classification over Tonkov, thirty-one seconds on Guerini and over a minute on Zülle. In the following stage to Alpe di Pampeago, he finished second behind Tonkov but maintained the general classification lead over him and gained further time on Zülle and Guerini. In the eighteenth stage to Plan di Montecampione, he repeatedly attacked Tonkov, dropping him in the last three kilometers and winning the stage to face the individual time trial on the penultimate stage with a lead of almost a minute and a half. Zülle lost contact with the favorites in the first climb and ended up losing over thirty minutes. Having won over two minutes on Pantani in the previous time trial, Tonkov was considered superior to Pantani on the time trial discipline, but the Italian finished third in the penultimate stage, gaining an additional five seconds on Tonkov. Pantani was thus able to maintain his lead to win the Giro d'Italia with a minute and a half over Tonkov and more than six minutes over Guerini. He also won the Mountains classification and finished second in the Points classification.In the Tour de France, Pantani started the race by finishing 181st of 189 riders in the opening prologue, and losing over four minutes in the first individual time trial to 1997 Tour de France winner Jan Ullrich. Pantani pulled back these early time losses to Ullrich, first in the Pyrenees by taking 23 seconds off Ullrich in the stage to Luchon and winning the stage to Plateau de Beille, where he took an additional minute and forty seconds from Ullrich. Although he was still three minutes behind Ullrich after the Pyrenees, he defeated him by almost nine minutes in the first mountain stage in the Alps, from Grenoble to Les Deux Alpes, via the Col de la Croix de Fer and Col du Galibier. Pantani launched an attack on the ascent of Galibier, forty-eight kilometers from the finish. He stopped to put on a rain jacket at the summit to win on the final ascent to Deux Alpes. Pantani turned his three-minute deficit on Ullrich into a six-minute advantage that he maintained in the following stages to win the Tour de France ahead of Jan Ullrich and Bobby Julich. Pantani became the first Italian since Felice Gimondi in 1965 to win the Tour and the seventh rider in history to achieve the Giro-Tour double, a feat which no one had achieved since Miguel Induráin succeeded in 1993. Until Tadej Pogacar in 2024, Pantani was the last person to win the Giro-Tour double in the same year. Following his success in the Tour, he stated that he may have won the cleanest Tour because of the fear of police following the Festina affair. Although he had just ended what would be his most successful season and he had always dreamed about winning the yellow jersey, he later stated that he felt more alone than ever. French cycling magazine Vélo Magazine awarded him the Vélo d'Or as the best rider of 1998.