We continue our Six Days of the Giro series with a look at the troubled bond between Marco Pantani and the Giro.
Some were meant to be tormented, as though it were preordained that their brilliance should be balanced with fatal flaws. These are tortured souls, whose dramatic highs are equalled only by the devastating depths of their lows.
Cycling drinks its fill of these personalities, and climbing seems to attract more than its fair share. Shakespeare himself couldn’t divine a better premise; the discipline most focussed on suffering in a sport totally focussed on suffering will always attract the most enigmatic of sorts. Charley Gaul, José MarÃa Jiménez, Marco Pantani; the list goes on.
Italy’s geography seems to lend itself to climbing and therefor suffering. There are mountains from north to south, and it being a narrow stip of a country, there is no occasion to avoid them for very long before any parcourse is once again forced to go over them. Already Monday’s Stage 3 of this year’s race is a lumpy thing with two categorized climbs and Stage 4 has an uphill finish. This will be a race for those able to suffer.
Pantani in particular seemed inextricably bound to the Giro. Even before winning in 1998, he found himself winning some of the hardest mountain stages, though his temperament dictated that for every great day on the bike, he would be pay at least V bad ones. In 1999, he looked to be the sure winner before registerring a hematocrit over the UCI 50% limit at Madonna di Campiglio. In 2000, he returned once again, but was far from his best and rode in support of his teammate and eventual winner, Stefano Garzelli.
He struggled on for a few more years, but always tried to shine in Italy. In 2003, in a heart-wrenching display of defiance, he gave the last of himself in vain before disappearing from the sport for good.
It reminds me of a song written by a man who’s life was similarly tormented, Layne Staley. Perhaps Layne and Pantani were two parts of the same whole.
My pain is self-chosen
At least, so the prophet says
– Layne Stayey, River of Deceit
Maybe Layne could have been a Cyclist in another life.
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I have no patience for homophobia!
@Marcus Yes that was the point... replacing one offensive word with another. It's irony innit.
But at least you only blamed me, not the entire cycling world.
And I'm probably also guilty as charged in re-passing. I did it to someone just last week - I don't know what came over me - I was out on a quiet ride and some bloke on tribars came past and I just had to shadow (not draft) him to see if he could keep the pace up and then pass him when he ran out of puff.
Having said that I suspect it works the other way too. Would he have been so keen to come past me had I been on a tri bike ? Clearly he was going at a speed higher than he could maintain.
@frank
Thanks very much, Frank - both for both your efforts and for the reassurance :0)
@frank
Good stuff...what if I actually want a condominium!!.... (cue relevant emoticon!!)
@Coulee country
*cough.....Rule #42, personally I prefer Tritards to Trifags, but hey, each to their own...
@TBONE
Funny story, not a cool word. Reign that shit in.
@anthony sands
Be my guest...you obviously don't understand some of the irony here....
I think Tri -Dorks, is better. I love cycling like crazy but shit like that bumm's me out!
Thats not Irony. The use of that word is derogatory.
@TBONE Sort yourself out. You're confusing me, were the aero people you encountered wannabe junior pupils in the private school system, aspiring freshmen in some military academy or were you actually trying to be offensive towards tri-athletes? Eitherway remember rule 43.
@Coulee country, @anthony sands lighten up, poor choice of words but I doubt it was intended as homophobic.
I ended up riding with a couple of lads on Sunday for part of the route. We were all headed in the same direction and at roughly the same speed so it made sense to take pulls (if anything I had to work a bit harder to keep up on the hills). One of them had aero bars, a skin suit and a tendency to weave about a bit which meant that I gave him a bit more space when he was on the front. Other than that he still seemed to be pushing on the pedals in the same way as the everyone else.