Marco Pantani (January 13, 1970 – February 14, 2004) was an Italian cyclist widely regarded as being one of the best climbers of all times in professional road bicycle racing. The high point of his career was to win the Tour de France and the Giro d'Italia in 1998. The bandana he often wore and his attacking style of riding led to him being dubbed 'Il Pirata' (the pirate) by the adoring Italian "tifosi" - his fans. However, his career was dogged by drug allegations, following his failing a blood test in the 1999 Giro. He died of a cocaine overdose in 2004.

The first victories
Pantani returned to action in the Giro in 1997, but was felled by a black cat which ran out in front of him during one of the first stages, ending his race. Remarkably, he returned to action the same year in the Tour and mounted a strong challenge for the yellow jersey. Because of his slight build and unique ability, Pantani was virtually unmatchable in the high mountains of the Alps and Pyrénées and won two stages, establishing the record time for the climb of Alpe d'Huez, but the bulkier and more powerful Jan Ullrich showed his own determination and limited the amount of time he lost to Pantani during some titanic battles. Ullrich was then able to recover these losses and more in the individual time trials to which he was far more suited; thus, he ultimately claimed the yellow jersey, with Pantani finishing third overall, behind Richard Virenque.
The following year, 1998, was the year of glory for Pantani. For the first time he won the Giro d'Italia, beating Pavel Tonkov and Alex Zülle. And he was also triumphant in the Tour de France: here he was finally able to crack the resolute and hitherto indestructible Ullrich, who, though wearing the yellow jersey in his first year as team leader, had also shown his lack of experience by becoming isolated from his team-mates several times in the mountain stages. In the Pyrénées, Pantani pulled back early time losses to Ullrich from the first week and then delivered a sensational coup by defeating him by almost nine minutes in one epic Alpine mountain stage, from Grenoble to Les Deux Alpes, via the Col de la Croix de Fer and Col du Galibier, under horrible weather conditions. Although Ullrich showed his character by going on the offensive on the Col du Madeleine during the next stage to Albertville, Pantani followed him easily and went on to become the first Italian since Felice Gimondi (1965) to win the Tour. His achievement was all the more remarkable because for many years previously the Tour had been dominated by powerful time trial specialists, such as Miguel Indurain and Jan Ullrich, who possessed enough climbing ability to limit their losses in the mountains. Not since the days of Lucien van Impe (1976) had a 'pure' climber been victorious.
Unfortunately, because of the big doping scandal during 1998's Tour, the Tour that should have been remembered as Pantani's Tour passed partially to history as the Tour of the Festina Affair (from the name of the French Team Festina led at the time by Richard Virenque). That year, the Festina team was excluded from the Tour after Willy Voet, one of its medical staff members, was caught at the France-Belgium border with many illicit doping products hidden in his car. The scandal touched not only the Festina team, but all the cyclists: during the Tour there were investigations of numerous teams and many of them left the Tour voluntarily. There were two cyclists' strikes protesting the police atmosphere to which the Tour had fallen. Under those conditions, Pantani, who was not touched by the doping scandal, looked like a saviour for that Tour and for cycling in general.

The great years
Things turned bad for Pantani towards the end of the 1999 Giro. He was well on the way to winning, having already won four stages, with all his challengers far away in the GC, and only one mountain stage left: however, he was disqualified from the race (eventually won by Ivan Gotti) for a suspiciously high red blood cell count which suggested (although could not conclusively prove) use of the banned substance EPO. Later, it was also revealed that he had a hematocrit level of 60% after his crash in 1995, far above the later adopted 50% limit [1]. After his banishment from the Giro, his pride wounded, Pantani stayed away from the rest of the year's races.
Despite the drug allegations, Pantani remained popular with many fans as something of a throwback to the great pure climbers of the past, attacking in the mountains and making the race exciting, rather than grinding his rivals down. In 2000 he was back on the Giro, without having really prepared for it; in fact he only decided to show up the day before the race started. He subsequently lost a lot of time and could not place any attack until the last mountain stage arriving in Briançon, in which he helped his teammate Stefano Garzelli to win the Giro and placed an attack without anyone being able to follow him, but he finished only second on the stage because he could not catch a persistent attacker. Pantani also participated in the 2000 Tour de France. Although well off the pace for much of the race, he showed a glimpse of his talent and determination when he matched the seemingly invincible Lance Armstrong pedal for pedal up the harsh Mont Ventoux, leaving the rest of the field way behind. On the final metres, Armstrong appeared to allow Pantani to pull away, giving him the stage victory: Pantani, however, resented the gesture, causing bad blood between the two riders, which was to be exacerbated when Armstrong referred to his rival as Elefantino (italian for 'little elephant'), a nickname Pantani hated because it referred to his very prominent ears. In that same Tour, up to Courchevel, he won another stage, attacking and leaving everyone behind him, Armstrong included.
This was the last race won by Pantani, who left that Tour before its end. After that he raced only sporadically in 2001 and 2002, still morally defeated from doping suspicions. He seemed to be back during the Giro of 2003, where he did not win any stage but proved to still be able to compete with the best racers, finishing well-placed in the mountain stages.
Pantani admitted himself into a clinic in northern Italy in June 2003, suffering from clinical depression. At that point the chances of him once again being a contender in major races looked slim.

The late years
During the early evening of 14 February 2004 Pantani was found dead at a hotel in Rimini, Italy. An autopsy revealed he died of a cerebral edema and heart failure, and a later coroner's inquest revealed that this was brought on by acute cocaine poisoning. Reacting to his death, fellow Italian cyclist Mario Cipollini said "I am devastated. It's a tragedy of enormous proportions for everyone involved in cycling. I'm lost for words."
Twenty thousand mourners gathered at his funeral, during which his manager and close friend Manuela Ronchi read these final notes from his diary:
Pantani is buried in Cesenatico.
Miguel Indurain paid tribute by saying: "He got people hooked on the sport. There may be riders who have achieved more than him, but they never succeeded in drawing in the fans like he did."
The time trial stage of the 2004 Alpe d'Huez was dedicated to Pantani's memory.
Giro d'Italia's organizers decided to dedicate a mountain pass to Pantani's memory every year. In the 2004 edition, the first Cima Pantani was Passo del Mortirolo, a terrible mountain pass that played a key role in Pantani's history. When it was included in the Giro for the third time in 1994 Pantani attacked on the mountain, leaving everyone behind, to finally earn one of his best victories at Aprica; in 1999 the Mortirolo waited for Pantani in vain since he was excluded from that Giro before the beginning of the stage. In the 2005 edition the Cima Pantani was Colle Fauniera, where Pantani showed the last glimpse of his talent in the 2003 Giro d'Italia.

Death

Major results

1994: 3rd overall; 2nd mountains classification; 1st young rider classification (Maillot blanc)
1995: 13th overall; 1st young rider classification (Maillot blanc); Stage 10 and 14 wins
1997: 3rd overall; Stage 13 and 15 wins
1998: 1st overall (maillot jaune); 7 days in maillot jaune; 2nd mountains classification; Stage 11 and 15 wins
2000: Did not finish; Stage 12 and 15 wins