Self-Chosen: Il Pirata & Il Giro

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 María 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.

frank

The founder of Velominati and curator of The Rules, Frank was born in the Dutch colonies of Minnesota. His boundless physical talents are carefully canceled out by his equally boundless enthusiasm for drinking. Coffee, beer, wine, if it’s in a container, he will enjoy it, a lot of it. He currently lives in Seattle. He loves riding in the rain and scheduling visits with the Man with the Hammer just to be reminded of the privilege it is to feel completely depleted. He holds down a technology job the description of which no-one really understands and his interests outside of Cycling and drinking are Cycling and drinking. As devoted aesthete, the only thing more important to him than riding a bike well is looking good doing it. Frank is co-author along with the other Keepers of the Cog of the popular book, The Rules, The Way of the Cycling Disciple and also writes a monthly column for the magazine, Cyclist. He is also currently working on the first follow-up to The Rules, tentatively entitled The Hardmen. Email him directly at rouleur@velominati.com.

View Comments

  • @TBONE

    Funny, I was just reminiscing with a friend today about how I bought these aero bars because of Pantani. Had them mounted on my 1998 steel Vitali with Campagnolo Veloce. I think I still have them. Are they compliant with The Rules? I doubt that they'd work on my Cinelli with the flat top bars I have.

    No, but they're fucking awesome.

  • @piwakawaka

    Dirty little drugs cheat. Would we know of him without the cheating and the OD? Why do his records still stand? His ride up Alp d Huez, he may as well been riding a motorbike!

    Who do you propose his records be given to?

    His rides, informed by context, were the best of his generation.

  • I loved, loved watching that little dude go uphill, doping be damned. Passion, in cycling, is not something you can inject into your thigh.

    As to the other rantings about slang above, well, I'm the least qualified person on the site to discuss that. I can't tell people's gender apart anyway...............

  • @TBONE

    Henceforth I shall no longer call Triathletes 'tryfags'. For my punishment for speaking ill of Triathletes I will be wearing Campagnolo compression socks and LED lit compression arm warmers in every race I ride in.

    http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=72768 http://www.gearbuzz.com/deal/36282/50-percent-off-glimmer-gear-unisex-led-compression-arm-sleeves/national

    Can you make sure your jersey is sleeveless when you wear the disco arm warmers?  Also, you may want to throw in a Bentobox for good measure?

  • @starclimber

    Bit worried about the work website, also a WordPress item, as I had one 'unpublished' bit of spam appear last week, particularly after the problems here. I've learned not to say 'probably nothing'.

    You can email rouleur@velominati.com and I can tell you what I know and what you can do to (hopefully) prevent problems like this on your own site. I'm still digging into the root cause and still learning more about the attack.

  • @Tobin

    @TBONE

    @TBONE

    Henceforth I shall no longer call Triathletes 'tryfags'. For my punishment for speaking ill of Triathletes I will be wearing Campagnolo compression socks and LED lit compression arm warmers in every race I ride in.

    http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=72768 http://www.gearbuzz.com/deal/36282/50-percent-off-glimmer-gear-unisex-led-compression-arm-sleeves/national

    Can you make sure your jersey is sleeveless when you wear the disco arm warmers? Also, you may want to throw in a Bentobox for good measure?

    And make sure that you put your helmet on backwards coming out of the first transition zone.  That really sets the rest of the outfit off perfectly.

  • @ChrisO Jeesh, I really need to find this as it sounds funny as hell.  Is it out there on youtube anywhere?  Cannot really search for that one at work!

  • @frank

    That is a classic.  As a bonus, I had never noticed the "how to put on a wetsuit" tutorials that are linked at the end.  WTF?

    Some of the "advice":

    Put both feet in first
    Pull the wetsuit up fully to the waist before trying to insert your arms

    Glad some hard-hitting investigative journalist finally took the complexity out of getting dressed.  I don't know how we figured out the wetsuit dilemma back in my surfing days.

  • @anthony sands

    I think Tri -Dorks, is better. I love cycling like crazy but shit like that bumm's me out!

    As an unqualified dork, I find your use of the word dork offensive.

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