Ten years ago Marco Pantani died of a cocaine overdose in a hotel in Rimini. When the news became public at the time, many people caught their breath. His death is still a mystery to this day. Certainly, even then, the topic of doping was on everyone's lips and since then the flow of negative reports in this regard has hardly decreased.
Nevertheless, Pantani, one of the few exceptionally gifted cyclists, left the stage. "I don't know if he took anything", said his mother recently, "but I know that he could have contributed a lot to the enlightenment." Perhaps this was in Pantani's interest and ultimately led to his early death. We do not know it. What is certain, however, is that he was doing cycling at a time when it was in a deep crisis without really being aware of it. Nevertheless, Pantani managed to captivate the masses like no other driver.
With this photo show we would like to commemorate the rise and fall of the Italian legend.
#1 Pantani started cycling early. Already during his youth he was considered one of the greatest talents in Italy.
#2 The entry into the professional field succeeded after dominating the baby giro. His first station was the Carrera team around the strong circuit driver Claudio Chiapucci.
# 3 In 1994 his star rose at the Giro d'Italia when he won two tough Alpine stages and finished second in the final standings. Later he also made his mark on the Tour de France.
#4 To this day, Pantani holds the record for the fastest ascent towards Alpe d'Huez. This dates back to 1997. He won here for the first time two years earlier: July 12, 1995, Tour de France – Aime La Plangne to Alpe d'Huez, 162.5 kilometers.
#5 Duitama's third-place finisher won the Giro d'Italia in 1998, the year of the Festina scandal, and seized his chance during the Tour de France to snatch the lead from a ailing Jan Ullrich en route to Les Deux Alpes.
#6 He celebrated his greatest success on the podium in Paris. To date, Pantani is the last rider to win both the Giro and the Tour in the same year.
#7 The turning point of his career came 1999 in Madonna di Campiglio. Two days before the end of the Giro, he was withdrawn from the race due to an elevated hematocrit level. He never recovered from this incident.
#8 In 2000 he returned to the Tour de France and won the 15th stage to Courchevel in the way he was used to - with an attack.
#9 The lasting event is probably the duel with Lance Armstrong on Mont Ventoux, which Pantani also won. The American later said, "If I was the carpenter, Pantani was the artist."
#10 That was also part of Pantani's career. Several heavy falls threw him off track, he managed to fight back several times until…
#11 ...on February 14, 2004, news broke that Pantani had passed away. He had just returned from South America and on the return flight he had written his unnerving thoughts in his passport. On February 18th he was buried in his home town of Cesenatico.
To this day, Marco Pantani is unforgotten. He is still considered the best climber that has ever existed on a bike. rightly so! But he is also a symbol of a generation whose fame raises many questions. Almost more than the life and death of Pantani itself. So the question remains: What really moved his death?