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By Drew Savage
Marco Pantani, a single man, is in his room 5D at the Residence Le Rose in Rimini in Italy, where he had arrived on the Monday before, outside of season. Others have said that he is acting oddly.
Pantani, who was then 34 years old, may have reached his peak. Lance Armstrong had just won his fourth Tour de France and would go on to win three more. Pantani has been in the limelight for more than three year since he was nicknamed ‘Il Pirata,’ the pirate, because of his bandana and shaved hair, as well as his nose stud, earrings, and bandana.
In his prime, he was the swashbuckling folk-hero of professional cycling. He fought against Armstrong and his own declining power in the Tour de France 2000. This day is still one of the most-watched cycling events in Italy.
Pantani makes three calls to the reception in the middle of morning. Pantani complains that the people who are in the empty room next to him have been disturbing him. Pantani calls the police just after 11 am.
Panani was a classic climber, with a slim build, sharp cheekbones and powerful lungs. Six other riders have ever won the Giro d’Italia as well as the Tour de France due to his ability in thin mountain air. This etched him into the pantheon along with Fausto Coppi Eddy Merckx, and Bernard Hinault.
Pantini’s reputation, at least for some, was tainted by 2004. He was now 20kg heavier than his race weight and had a broader frame.
Despite being in the lead of the 1999 Giro d’Italia, he finished the race with ignominy and not triumph.
After failing a drug test, the Italian police frogmarched him out of the hotel where the Italian team was staying during the penultimate race.
Fans blocked the road to protest as Pantani’s teammates cheered on the balcony of the hotel.
Pantani stated that “I have returned from two serious accidents but we are at the bottom morally.”
P takes this fork on the road
He was unable to escape the darkness of his world.
After consulting with the owner of the hotel, the receptionist knocks at the door of the Room 5D in the evening under the pretense of providing new towels. The receptionist knocks and there’s no answer. After a second conversation with the boss, the receptionist knocks again. The receptionist unlocks the door using a master-key and removes the furniture used to block it. He finds Marco Pantani in a bloody pool by the bed at the mezzanine floor.
Pantani’s legacy is one of glory and adoration, but there are questions. Pantani was not loved by everyone. Pantani was not loved by everyone.
Marco Pantani, who was born in Cesenatico (14 miles from Rimini) and grew up with a working class family, is a member of this community.
As a child, it was his neighbor who suggested he join a local cycling club. He became one of the greatest climbers in the sport.
Pantani was viewed as a breath fresher when he arrived on the scene. He stood out from riders such as Miguel Indurain or Jan Ullrich who had been dominating time trial races. They were considered a ‘winning machines’ by those who love the sport. Hard to beat but also hard to like.
Pantani is the perfect antidote to his competitors’ gasping.
Pantani, aside from singing late into the night, eating Nutella and refusing to use a heart rate monitor or helmet, was a different rider. Pantani was an outcast.
Matt Rendell, a cycling journalist and Pantani biographer, is featured in the BBC Sounds documentary Pantani – Death of a Pirate.
Pantani was a huge success but millions were also captivated by his winning style. His panache and style were what captivated millions. He rode mountains hunched up over the handlebars, his hands resting on the drop. He soared past the others, without even breaking a sweat. Pirates were known to wear their heart on their sleeves – either for glory or their death.
After winning a critical 1998 Giro Stage at Montecampione, he explained his racing strategy.
Pantani set a new record during the Tour de France 1994 for fastest climb of Alpe d’Huez.
No one has ever beaten his three Alpe d’Huez rides in the Tour de France. He broke the record again in 1995 with another thrilling ride. He came four seconds short of breaking his record in 1997.
Pantani won the race, finishing three minutes after Ullrich in yellow.
Pantani won the race in the Alps on a wet, cold day.
Pantani, in what was probably apocalyptic conditions, attacked Ullrich at the Galibier and gained almost three minutes. He then flew off the other side. Ullrich said that Pantani had a problem on the last climb. He therefore played it safe and followed him.
Pantani was able to be seen tearing through the finish at Les Deux Alpes in the thick fog. At the 15th stage he was nine minutes ahead of Ullrich.
Pantani gambled that he would be wearing the yellow shirt all the way up to Paris.
Pantani’s career seemed to be reaching its peak when he was ejected with only two stages left in the 1999 Giro. However, 10 months later, his career plummeted.
Peloton riders, journalists and tifosi – Italy’s enthusiastic fans – all were shocked. The Pirate was denied the opportunity to be crowned in front of Italians. In the absence of reliable tests for Erythropoietin, a banned blood-booster drug, his haematocrit level was two percentage points above the limit of 50%.
The people who did not pass the tests were told that they had failed, but accepted it as a job risk, completed their sentence, and returned to their career. David Millar became a champion of clean cycling.
Pantani’s career was over, even though he had only been temporarily banned from the track after failing to pass a “health check”.
According to his close friends, it was at that time he began to use cocaine regularly.
Indurain summarized Pantani’s five-year period after his death, in 2004.
“He was banned from the country for only 15 days because of the haematocrit tests, but his life was forever changed.
Pantani, despite his public popularity, was constantly at odds with cycling authorities and the Italian Government. He became paranoid and convinced that he had been unfairly targeted by cycling as it sought to improve their practices.
Pantani, in October 2003 told his fans that they should “forget Pantani the Athlete” as he underwent treatment at a clinic for depression and drug abuse.
Pantani wrote in his passport when he was on vacation in Cuba.
He wrote: “I’m not the same champion as I used to be.”
It is not the same man that I am now. My fans are not cheering me because of their affection but rather, they want a character.
For nothing, I have been embarrassed. Since four years ago, I have been to every court. “Yes, there are rules, but everyone follows them.”
These words were made public when the passport was discovered in his room four months after they were written.
Tonina screamed at the press during his funeral: “You are all responsible for the death of my son.” What’s your purpose here ?”?”
Over 20,000 people lined Cesenatico’s streets as his coffin left the church.
Initial investigations into Pantani’s death revealed that it was an accident cocaine overdose. This was not, however, the final conclusion.
In 2016, a second investigation was launched after Pantani’s relatives claimed that he had been murdered and beaten. He also said he was forced to drink cocaine. The inquiry dismissed the family’s theory as a “fanciful speculation”.
In November 2021, the Italian authorities revealed that a third inquiry would be launched into Pantani’s 1999 Giro disqualification and his subsequent death.
The investigation was launched after new evidence, almost accidentally, had been uncovered.
According to Lorenzo Bodrero, an investigative journalist who wrote Pantani: The Death of a pirate, one of two men in a 2016 conversation unrelated to Pantani’s case mentioned the Naples Mafia, the Camorra, was involved in Pantani’s death.
Mafia rumours persist that Pantani’s murder was committed because of the risk to the organized crime syndicate of losing a significant amount of money if he were to win the 1999 Giro.
Police had discovered new evidence which seemed to confirm their theory.
Fabio Miradossa also appeared in court. He was a drug dealer who supplied Pantani near the end.
Bodrero said that the man who was selling him cocaine is his “pusher”.
Miradossa confirmed that Pantani used cocaine but not to the extent where he would have killed himself within a couple of days.
A well-known criminal claimed that his mafia connections had foreseen Pantani’s failure to pass the blood test during the 1999 Giro.
They reportedly advised betting against Pantani, because they believed he wouldn’t make it to Milan.
Matt Rendell, Pantani’s Biographer, has never believed in mafia stories.
He told BBC Sounds that the Camorra does not contact staff at a Como Hospital’s haematology division when they want to fix something. “That’s not their mode of operation.”
A government panel investigating mafia activity was far less sure.
Nicola Morra is the president of Parliamentary Anti-mafia Commission. According to her, it’s still possible that mafia tampered with the Giro d’Italia results.
We were not able close the way we had hoped. It is by exclusion.
According to the commission, “several serious” irregularities were found in the blood samples taken during the 1999 Giro. According to rules designed to protect riders’ privacy, the blood sample should only have been identifiable to select officials by number. However, Pantani’s test tube was marked with his full name.
Pantani’s blood was also taken one hour earlier than stated in the previous case. This could have led to the sample being tampered.
The commission claims that manipulating the test tubes can be achieved by placing Marco Pantani’s sampling time correctly at 07:46.
Pantani may have caused his own test results. Perhaps the drug testers caught up to a doper.
According to French professional cycling Christophe Bassons, at the time 95% of riders used EPO.
The retrospective analysis of samples from 1998 and 1999 Tour de France shows that his estimate is somewhat supported. As detection technology has improved, this was partly confirmed by the testing of urine collected in those years.
Pantani was one of the 18 riders who tested positive, and another 12 were deemed suspect.
Some riders in that period managed to pass their blood haematocrit tests by avoiding drug testers, and timed their EPO intake so as to remain within prescribed limits.
Pantani, on the day he left his hotel with his team, felt he had not cheated any more than his competitors did when he left the 1999 Giro.
Pantani’s mother claims that he left notes to support this statement.
She told BBC Sounds that he never said ‘I did not take any’. He told her he’d do whatever he could, but never wrote ‘I did not take any’. He told me that that was a good day.
Pantani could have become isolated and addicted to cocaine as a consequence of feeling cheated by not being able to defend his championship in front of home fans.
The mystery surrounding the death of this man has never been explained.
Giuseppe Fortuni is a professor of forensic medicine and lecturer at the University of Bologna. He claims that Pantani had a body dose of more than six-times the amount of cocaine needed to be lethal. This quantity of cocaine would have been almost too much to consume recreationally. Fortuni was a pathologist who tested Pantani’s corpse.
Pantani was found dead in his home. The coroner ruled that Pantani had not committed suicide. He believed he would have taken the prescribed drugs on his person if this had been Pantani’s intention.
Miradossa may not have been a completely reliable witness but his doubts about Marco’s murder are still valid.
I believe Marco was killed. “He was searching for the truth.” “He was searching for something,” said he to the anti-mafia committee of the Italian government.
According to my personal experience, and what I’ve seen on photos and video, Marco didn’t take drugs at the location.
Pantani may have sniffed the cocaine as there were no items for Pantani to smoke cocaine. This was his preferred way of taking cocaine.
Marco didn’t smell, therefore whoever set up the crime scene was not aware. said Miradossa.
Tonina Panani has focused her activism on the death of her son.
She said to BBC Sounds: “I am convinced Marco did not die there.” “There were too many odd things… not his habit.”
In front of the television, he would go to sleep. The TV in that hotel was located near couches. He didn’t probably sleep on the mezzanine where his body and the bed were found. I think he slept below.
“Upstairs, everything was neat and tidy. The chaos was downstairs. It was a mess. The hotel manager was asked if there should be any damages. “No, madam. Nothing was broken. Everything was just disassembled.” He replied. What was the hell going on?
Marco lay in the coffin. I touched his hand. I touched his hands. “The scratches on his cheeks made me think he’d been beaten.
Tonina also claimed to have lost her son’s cap and that two jackets in the room were not his.
A 2007 book claims that two containers of aluminum at the scene contained Chinese food, which Pantani did not like.
Pantani’s bedroom was missing a large sum of money. Some say it is 20,000 Euros (PS17, 000), while others claim 12,000 Euros (PS10,000).
These details could be the key to understanding exactly what took place in Room 5D. All of these details could lead you to nowhere.
Pantani, high on cocaine, had damaged furniture in Cuba late last year while on vacation. Pantani could have been paranoid or under the influence drugs when he broke the furniture.
John Foot, a professor of Italian modern history at Bristol University, doubts that Pantani’s death was an accident.
He told BBC Sounds that the reopening case made him sad. The evidence seems pretty convincing. “For me it is a clear case of cocaine poisoning.”
“Here we are, we are going down a dead end and he will not be at peace,” I said.
“They’ll still rummage this story, and they won’t find much.”
Rimini is currently conducting the latest investigation in Pantani’s case. The results are not yet known.
Marco Pantani is the only person who can tell for certain what exactly happened in that Rimini Hotel room.
The legend will live on even if the truth has died.
Rendell recalls that it was almost as if the man didn’t try. He didn’t seem to panic, didn’t appear to be trying, and just flew away.
What might he be in a different world or another lifetime?
“His life at that time and the sports he played prevented us from looking any further.”
If you are affected by the problems mentioned in the article, contact the BBC Action Line to get information and help.
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