r-EPO man
I don’t know if it’s because I see something of myself in them or if it awakens some kind of nurturing instinct, but I always seem to find myself drawn to tragically flawed figures.
Layne Staley and Marco Pantani strike me as two halves of the same whole; incredibly talented yet tortured with mortally addictive personalities, both set loose into a world of over-indulgence. Everyone – including themselves – saw the writing on the wall in the months or even years leading up to their deaths, but everyone seemed helpless to stop the inevitable: a lonely death. To hear Staley sing is to watch Pantani climb; beauty is to witness an artist pouring their anguish into their trade.
I’ve been watching the 1998 Tour and Giro during my morning turbo sessions, and even with the lens through which we now view those rides, his talent was undeniable, but so was his fragile psyche. You can almost taste his self-doubt even as he flies up the mountains like a soaring eagle.
Today, St. Valentines Day, marks the tenth anniversary of Marco’s death, and with that we dive into the archives for a Kermis on Brett’s look at our fallen hero. See also a previous year’s Valentines Day Memorial.
May you go with Merckx, Marco.
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@Angling Saxon
Oh, someone from Seattle will go off on this.
Another Layne Staley gem:
So, I guess that a lot of you who admire his (doped up) riding performances and the way he glided up those mountains (doped up of course) must also be in awe and have fond memories of the same skills displayed by (dare I say it) Lance Armstrong?
@Wondering
Have you ever watched cycling? Armstrong rode with perhaps 1/10 the panache of Pantani. Also, Pantani was a tortured soul who you feel like wanted to do nothing more than race his bike. Retrospectively, Armstrong was a psychopath.
@Angling Saxon
...aaand I'm old. :/
"Panache"? Sounds like you're infatuated with the European Legend vs Loud American. "Oh, but Marco rode with panache, style, flare and was only riding doped because he was just a victim of the cycling culture of the time." Give me a break. Time to take off those rose coloured glasses. If the victim excuse is good for Marco, then why not for Lance. I think they're both drugged up cheats, so don't think I'm siding with Armstrong.
(to several of the posters here) If you want to glorify a troubled soul with a tragic fall from grace, then go right ahead, I'll back you on that. But if you're going to celebrate his drugged up cycling achievements and say they inspired you back then (and now) then don't be placing Marco on a pedestal and Lance in the gutter. Again, I'm no fan of Lance, but his achievements dominated cycling for many years, even dominated Marco when Marco was at his peak.
@Wondering
When I am watching a race and the road is getting steep and the attacks are flying the last thing on my mind is who is or isn't doped.... I like to watch guys race bikes, I tend to keep the doping debate and just plain awesome riding in separate compartments of my brain and have a Chinese wall between the two areas ... I am not saying it is right, that is just the way I am. When I see clips of Lance crushing it, I look at it and think what stage it was? who he was racing? what was the outcome etc? others may look at them and get disgusted by the fact that he doped blah blah blah ... Me I look at these photos and clips go Holy Fuck look at guy climb ...
@Fins
I grew up cycling in that era.
@Goggles
I too separate them, and I love watching particularly the 1997 Ulrich "strong man domination" to the 2007 "last of the big doper" races. I just find it so pathetic to idolise some cyclists despite their vices and demolish others who have essentially the same vices. They are entertaining and awesome achievements for what they are.
After several years of fighting against doping allegations in the courts, in his last six months, Pantani scribbled some notes on some pages in his passport then tore them out and put them in a bin. His friend Mengozzi found them and read them out loud sometime later at Pantani's funeral.
'I've been humiliated for nothing,' he wrote, in reference to his legal struggles. 'For four years I've been in every court. Rules, yes, but the same for everyone.'
Now isn't that essentially what Lance and a lot of his fans say.