Last Hurrah of Marco Pantani

On the surface Marco was a changed man at the start of the 2003 Giro. As if to banish the past, the glories and misdemeanours, he shaved off his goatee beard and cast aside his bandana. He was no longer ‘Il Pirata’, he was Marco Pantani again.

He rode well in the first few flat stages but was short of training and lost close to 4 minutes on the final climb of the first big day in the mountains. A rumour spread that his Mercatone Uno team had lost faith in Pantani, when only one team-mate, Poland’s Sylvester Szmyd, dropped back to help him.

Gilberto Simoni and Stefano Garzelli dominated. Mario Cipollini equalled Alfredo Binda’s record of 42 Giro stage wins, but Pantani was a sidebar. Working consistently, he was 14th overall by stage 12, which ended on the notorious Zoncolan, one of the hardest climbs in cycling.

Pantani was better, and as they approached the final climb, he was at the front with Simoni and Garzelli. He even had a team-mate set the pace. The 2 favourites watched Pantani. Simoni had to attack to distance Garzelli, but he was nervous about the returning champion.

At first, it looked as though he needn’t be, Simoni distanced both, but Garzelli and Pantani had once been team-mates and they worked well together. They couldn’t catch Simoni, but they were stemming the losses and staying clear of the next 2, Francesco Casagrande and Yaroslav Popovych.

In the final kilometres Pantani’s strength gave way; Garzelli pulled ahead and Casagrande and Popovych went past. Looking drained, far worse than he’d ever looked in his glory, Pantani finish 46 seconds behind Simoni. He was physically exhausted but proud again, something was still there, and so was hope.

Two days later, the stage finished at Alpe di Pampeago, where Pantani beat Simoni by over a minute in 1999. It was his last happy memory of the Giro, less than 48 hours later it was announced a blood haematocrit test on him had exceeded 50 percent, he was disqualified.

In the real world of his comeback all Pantani could do now was limit the damage to 2 minutes behind Simoni. He slipped out of the top 10 but was earning respect. Pantani was just Marco, no pirate alter-ego, it seemed like riders, fans and the press respected him for it. There were 2 more mountain stages before the finish in Milan, maybe he could move up, maybe he could contend on a stage.

It wasn’t to be. Stefano Garzelli fell on a corner of a wet descent and took Pantani down. Garzelli got away quickly, up on his feet and chasing, but Pantani sat on the grass verge, helmet off, blanket around him looking stunned. He got up slowly, remounted his bike and rode to the finish, more than a quarter of an hour behind winner Dario Frigo. He was out of the top 10 again.

On the final kilometres of the last mountain stage Pantani found something. He attacked and attacked; one last chance to win a stage, but he couldn’t. Fourteenth overall was a reflection on his performance; good, but not good enough to contend, not good enough to be the Pantani he was, but good enough to hope.

Pantani's Giro return in 2003

Less than 3 weeks later he checked into a clinic that treated depression and drug and alcohol addiction. Graham Watson, one of cycling’s best-known photographers who had followed Pantani as he valiantly attacked on that 19th stage, said: “If this was the last time we see him race, it was at least a dignified way of ending it all.”

He had no idea that the end would be so abrupt. The equilibrium that Pantani found in May was only momentary, but the place he earned in the hearts of the Italian and world cycling community has lasted and will continue.

After a very turbulent time in the autumn and winter of 2003, he booked into an apartment in Rimini, where he stayed alone with no visitors. On 14th February 2004 he refused to let the cleaner into his room and took the phone off the hook.

With no answer from the room, later that day the hotel manager broke down the door and found Marco Pantani dead, it’s alleged with cocaine, tranquillisers, other drugs and just a few desperate scribbled messages strewn around him.

Photos: Cycling Legends Collection.