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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*Sigh* I miss watching Pantani grinding himself to bits in the high mountains. Rocket fuelled or not, it was fantastic to watch.
2 gentlemen both sorely missed.
Above was a great album.
Er...suddenly getting a massive malware warning from google chrome when trying to get on the site....does not come up from iPad....any ideas?
Meh... I enjoyed watching him at the time but I don't buy into the Pantani worship, especially if people aren't also prepared to overlook Valverde, Vino etc for their sins (and I'm not suggesting they should be overlooked, just that double standards seem to be applied). I can't look at any of his performances without wondering what he was juiced on.
In fact I find it very hard to have much sympatico for anyone of that era, or any of the big names at least. Basically I stop caring at Riis and restart maybe with Sastre.
"Wondering what he was juiced on"? EPO, & later cocaine. Stop wondering. Pantani would've been an unrivaled grimpeur even without EPO, but not in that era. People are fascinated by him still because he was a tortured genius & because he was taken from us far, far before his time. Read Rendell's 'The Death of Marco Pantani.' He was an undeniably fascinating man &, "juiced" or not, one of the last & greatest examples of a fearless, instinctive, attacking climber
@Deakus Yep. I've got the same going on from home PC. Anyone else??
@Alex
Yep, got an unsafe site warning, using Safari on a Mac :0s
As for Pantani, loved him at the time, the question 'can I hang on all the way to the top' just never seem to occur to him. In retrospect, his appeal has waned, but then you could say that about a lot of riders of that era.
@Deakus, @Alex, @Geraint
We were attacked again last night around 3am Pacific time. The site was cleaned again immediately and I've been working hard to get better counter-measures in place.
We take your safety extremely seriously and rest assured we have it under control. These attacks are relatively benign and center on pages that aren't used. The worst that would happen, apparently, is that if someone browse to one of these pages, they would get redirected to a website selling condominiums. What a hassle.
@frank
Okeydoke - Google has given us a clean bill of health again. Thanks for your support!
What an incredible photo! It looks more like a painting.
Hmm, an attack on the site. Guess that's why I got that message. Thanks for all your work, Frank! I wasn't necessarily concerned about anything more than having access here...
How's this for an introduction: I first heard "Would" from Alice in Chains when I visited my older brother when he was a sophomore in college and I was in 8th grade. Sometime around midnight we were in the basement of his fraternal house listening to the song and throwing full cups of beer at the ceiling. Oh boy, the height of stupid excess for a young dude. "God, I want to go to college!"
How about today? Betancur into the woods, Scarponi smashes off his RD and kicks bidons about, Ryder attacks everyone, Cavendish out the back after a superb spring in Stage 1. Third stage and the Giro is proving its awesomeness!