I visit Cesenatico to pay homage to Marco Pantani, one of Italy’s most talented cyclists.
Marco Pantani was born in Cesena, Italy, on 13 January 1970.
He joined the Fausto Coppi cycling club in 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
He turned professional late in 1992 for the Carrera Jeans–Vagabond, winning two consecutive mountain stages in the 1994 Giro d’Italia and finishing 2nd overall. The same year, he rode the Tour de France for the first time, finishing in third place and winning the Young Riders Classification.
In the 1995 Tour, he won stages at Alpe d’Huez and Guzet-Neige. During Milano-Torino that same year, he collided head-on with a car, fracturing both his tibia and fibula in his leg, which took months and months of rehab, forcing him to miss the 1996 season.
Carrera pulled out at the end of 1996, and the Mercatone Uno team was formed. Pantani returned to racing in 1997, pulling out of the Giro d’Italia after hitting a cat during the race. He returned to the Tour de France, winning at Alpe d’Huez, setting a record for the climb that still remains today and at Morzine.
In 1998, he won both the Giro and Tour, winning two stages in each and the Mountains jersey in the Giro.
In 1999, he was expelled from the Giro d’Italia, which he was leading at the time, after a blood test at Madonna di Campiglio showed that he had a 52% hematocrit level, 2% above the 50% upper limit set by UCI. Riders returning a high hematocrit level, were forced to withdraw as a precautionary measure. A high hematocrit level also suggested that the rider was on EPO. He received a two-week suspension and the entire Mercatone Uno–Bianchi team withdrew from the race in protest.
The rest of his cycling career was tarnished with doping allegations, despite never testing positive as a professional cyclist.
Pantani was just 1.72m and weighed in at 57 kg. He was one of the last pure climbers. His preferred style was out of the saddle and riding on the drops, something I had never seen before.
I was an avid cyclist as a young man. I followed every race during the 1980s. Robert Millar from Scotland was my hero. He stayed in the saddle, gripping the centre of his Cinelli 64 bars, occasionally getting out of the saddle, holding onto the hoods, to force the pace. Millar won his first stage in the 1983 Tour de France at Luchon. The following year, he won at Guzet-Neige, finishing 4th overall and winning the King of the Mountains classification.
Pantani was a natural. He set a relentless pace up the climbs, few could match. He was given the nickname Il Pirata (“The Pirate”) because of his shaven head, earrings and bandanas he liked to wear.
My opinion on Pantani is that someone had it in for him. He was hounded by the paparazzi, for you are only as good as your last win. He was often accused, but the allegations were just that. No evidence was ever found.
A high hematocrit level can be attributed to having trained and lived at altitude. I lived at 2000m above Saint Moritz in Switzerland, where many pros used to train in preparation for the Grand Tours. My hematocrit level was always high, and I was at that altitude for 9 months of the year.
Depression led to drinking and using cocaine. In 2003, he asked for privacy and booked himself into a psychiatric clinic which specialised in nervous disorders, drug addiction and alcoholism.
Marco Pantani was found dead at the Residence Le Rose apartment-hotel in Rimini, Italy 14 February 2004 (aged 34).
The autopsy revealed he had cerebral oedema and heart failure due to acute cocaine poisoning.
Pantani spent the last days of his life alone.
And even in 2025, the court cases surrounding his death are still ongoing. Rumours abound.
Cycling lost one of the world’s most gifted and talented climbers.
Read more in this article in the Guardian Newspaper
The day after visiting San Marino, I took the train from Rimini to Cesenatico. The Spazio Pantani, aka the Marco Pantani Museum, is right next to the station.
After visiting the museum, I walked a few kilometres to the Marco Pantani Statue, which was unveiled in Cesenatico on February 14, 2014, on the 10th anniversary of his death
