Marco Pantani: The Greatest Climber

Ask anybody to name their top five favorite climbers, and you’re sure to get a thoughtful list of their favorites. The man on the street will give a considered response featuring terms like “grimpeur,” “scalatore,” and “Froomey, mate, innit.” But one thing these lists will all have in common is that they’ll include Marco Pantani.

The diminutive climber is widely considered one of the greatest climbers ever to grace the sport, with a distinctive riding style, a predilection for all-out gung-ho attacks whenever the road went uphill, and a cultivated styling as Il Pirata. And also a tragic story of legendary success immediately followed by disgrace, Mafia conspiracies, and a lonely death.

The Early Years

Pantani captured cycling fans’ attentions instantly. From the very start, his career on the bike was one of magnificent, stylish attacking racing on the sport’s most legendary slopes and in its most prestigious races, punctuated with notable absences due to injury that meant cycling fans never saw him endure un jour sans.

Off the bike, he was less magnificent: he was small and balding, with prominent ears. Until he wasn’t. Overnight he emerged restyled, with a self-determined nickname, The Pirate, and a look to match. He’d shaved his head, pierced his ears with gold rings, and would occasionally wear a goatee on his face or even a bandana on his head. Rivals felt threatened by his flamboyancy, accusing him of being all show and only attacking when the TV cameras were pointing at him.

Rumors that he was all show proved incorrect. He finished in second place to Miguel Indurain in only his first ever attempt at the Giro d’Italia, winning two stages along the way, and then won the Young Rider classification at the Tour de France. The following year, he recovered from a long period off the bike following being hit by a car, to set the all-time fastest ascent of the legendary Alpe d’Huez at the Tour de France, winning two stages and the Young Rider classification again.

Another car-related crash finished his 1995 season early, and he wouldn’t return to racing until the 1997 Tour de France. But he returned in style, setting another Alpe d’Huez record, winning another two stages, and finishing in third place behind winner Jan Ullrich.

A Legendary Year

In 1998 it all fell into place. Pantani’s relentless attacks on the mountains of the Giro d’Italia had cracked the race leader Alex Zulle and put him in the leader’s jersey with only a final time trial remaining. Although he’d lost huge chunks of time in the previous time trial, Italian fans were optimistic that he could just about hold onto his race lead over Pavel Tonkov. As it happened, that slender 1’27” lead grew by five seconds. Pantani had won the Giro on his second attempt.

The 1998 Tour de France was supposed to be routine. Ullrich, cycling’s new top dog would win by steamrollering his opposition in the time trials and mountains. Richard Virenque and Pantani would be the wild cards, bringing excitement to the mountains on a route that was on a route that was so formulaic and predictable that most fans already knew how the race would play out.

With the Festina Affair, which would change cycling forever, plus teams dropping out like flies and major protests from the riders, the Tour wasn’t exactly going to plan for its organizers. For a few moments, it looked like the Tour might not make it to Paris. But out on the road, Ullrich’s procession to his second Tour victory continued unimpeded.

Jan Ullrich was considered a once-in-a-generation talent. He’d worked with 1996 winner Bjarne Riis to unseat five-time winner Miguel Indurain, then comfortably won the next year’s Tour in the style of the powerful Spaniard. Ullrich was a diesel engine. He’d turn up the power until nobody else could bear it, and his rivals could only watch defeated as he drifted away from them.

Pantani was everything that Ullrich wasn’t. A nimble, fuel-injected engine that could launch away at blistering pace on any climb. He’d already taken a stage victory on Plateau de Beille, but Pantani had bigger ambitions to upset Ullrich’s party. He launched an enormous attack on the Galibier on Stage 15, and soloed to victory atop Les Deux Alpes. His attack broke the young German, who appeared to age 40 years as he battled torrential rain and freezing temperatures trying to save his yellow jersey, eventually finishing the stage nine minutes behind Pantani. He would never win the Tour again.

Pantani became the first Italian to win the Tour since 1965, and he remains the most recent person to win the Giro and Tour in the same year.

All Change

Pantani came back stronger the next year, dominating the 1999 Giro. With two stages left to race, he had four stage wins to his name, led the climbers and points classifications, and had a huge six-minute lead in the overall classification. The race had long become a foregone conclusion. And then, overnight, he was expelled.

Pantani had tested with a hematocrit level of 52%, slightly above the “natural” 50% level. No test existed for EPO, but the “health check” that took place acted a proxy for it. He was removed from the race and suspended for racing because his body did not meet the sport’s definition of natural. Although he hadn’t technically tested positive for doping, he went from hero to persona non grata overnight. And although his “health break” was only two weeks long, he didn’t race again that year.

Rumors later emerged of Mafia syndicates linked to sudden, unusual betting patterns that meant they stood to make a large amount of money if Pantani didn’t win. The rumors became more than conspiracy theories when more details emerged about gambling interference in other Italian sports during this period. Further (though rather circumstantial) evidence suggested Pantani’s blood sample had undergone a process of deplasmatosis, artificially elevating his haematocrit.

The Comeback

Pantani made his comeback at the 2000 Tour de France, but he returned as a shadow of his former self until a last gasp attack on the Mont Ventoux left him approaching the finish line with only Lance Armstrong for company. As Pantani began his sprint, Armstrong lightly tapped his brakes, letting Il Pirata take Stage 12’s victory. The Italian wasn’t one to ask for gifts in the mountains, and he used his post-victory press conference to speak out about the American’s disrespect. Armstrong returned in kind, calling Pantani “Elefantino,” a reference to his ears.

Suddenly, Armstrong had made a dangerous enemy, one with the gumption to take to race to him and the legs to back up his intentions on the most decisive climbs. Pantani took another mountain stage win on Stage 15, this time not offering Armstrong the opportunity to give away any more gifts.

He wasn’t finished. On the queen stage from Courchevel to Morzine the following day, he launched a solo break with a huge 120km remaining. He was still nine minutes behind Armstrong, and his attack set out his intention to remove that deficit in a single stage. But for all the fire in his belly, Pantani was still a man broken by the sport and the media that had turned on him. After a few miles opening up a gap on the peloton, Pantani gave up the fight and withdrew from the race that evening.

Some very limited racing followed in 2001 and 2002, and rumors of a last minute return to the 2003 Tour de France with the Bianchi team that had sprung up from the ashes of the defunct Coast team proved to be far wide of the mark for a man who couldn’t possibly have had cycling any further from his mind. After a long period of depression, Marco Pantani died on Valentine’s Day 2004. He remains one of the sport’s most legendary climbers, with a legacy among cycling fans and Italian cycling that will never be forgotten.