On 02/15/2004 09:37 AM, in article [email hidden],
Steven L. Sheffield said:Steve McGinty said:Hard hitting article on Pantani's death by David Walsh in the London Times
timesonline.co.uk0,,2094 1002875,00.htmlOpen ↗
including:
"...those victories came at a terrible price as Pantani paid for each one with a part of his
life. He had been an unwell man for much of the last 10 years and while we await the official
cause of his death, we already know where and when it started to go seriously wrong for Pantani."
and
"Speaking from Rome last night, Professor Sandro Donati expressed his sorrow at Pantani’s death
and his disgust at those who contributed to it. This night, he said, there are some doctors in
Italy who should not sleep easily. Journalists, too, played their part. They knew what he was
doing and they urged him to go faster and faster. When he won, they said he was a legend, when he
was very unhealthy."
Regards! Stephen
Right ... I'm not going to spend $5.00/3.00 UKP to read one article.
Can someone please post the entire thing?
Never mind ... Yes I will pay the money.
But here's the article so the rest of you can enjoy it:
February 15, 2004
Cycling: Dead at 34 DAVID WALSH
Marco Pantani was first kicked out of cycling in 1999, but he had pushed the self-destruct button
long before being banned
The news agencies reported that the 1998 Tour de France winner Marco Pantani was found dead at his
apartment in Rimini last evening, and an Italian friend said he was in a hotel and was discovered
dead by the manager. What is certain is the sadness at Pantani¹s premature death and the suspicion
that it was utterly avoidable. Modern sport, in all its hypocrisy, has claimed another victim.
Italian police said the cause was as yet unknown, but that he had not died a violent death. A
police team was conducting inquiries at the scene and medical tests were due to be carried out.
In Italy last night they showed clips of Pantani soaring away from his rivals in the Alps and
Dolomites. They presented him as he desperately wished to be seen. And although they dared not say
it, those victories came at a terrible price as Pantani paid for each one with a part of his life.
He had been an unwell man for much of the last 10 years and while we await the official cause of
his death, we already know where and when it started to go seriously wrong for Pantani.
He was a very talented bike rider, maybe the purest mountain climber since Lucian Van Impe or,
before him, Charly Gaul. It was his bad luck to arrive on the professional cycling scene at around
the same time as the dangerous blood-boosting drug, erythropoieitin. No matter how gifted, no
rider could compete with those on EPO unless he, too, used the drug. When Pantani began, it wasn¹t
even banned.
But from the earliest days of his career, it was clear that he had a problem. He crashed during
the 1995 Milan to Turin race and when taken to hospital, it was discovered he had an haematrocrit
level of 60. The average level of male athletes is around 42 or 43 but Pantani¹s blood was so rich
in red cells, and consequently so thick, that the medical people treating him knew that something
was amiss.
After a few days in hospital, his haematocrit level dropped to 16, an even more alarming situation
than the abnormally high 60. But then a couple of doctors came from another town to visit Pantani
and his haematrocrit level rose to 38. What was obvious back then was that the rider¹s body was not
always capable of producing its own red cells and that Pantani needed to be protected from himself.
But he had miles to ride and a Tour de France to win. What a travesty of a sporting event that 1998
Tour de France was. The police found drugs pretty much wherever they looked, five Spanish teams
pulled out because they didn¹t like the police presence and cycling¹s No 1 team, Festina, was
kicked out of the race because it was found with the biggest drugs cargo of all. And that was the
race Marco Pantani won. He climbed the mountains at a speed that had never before been seen in the
race and he took his place among the Tour¹s champions.
Only recently a woman who worked with one of the teams in that race remarked that even in the midst
of an overwhelming police presence, the cars bringing the drugs were still arriving at Pantani¹s
hotel. But what did anybody care as long as the man we called ³The Pirate² continued to climb like
an angel? The following year he was again dominant in the Tour of Italy but with two days to go his
haematocrit level was 53 and he was banished from the race.
Cycling¹s authorities say that an haematocrit level of 53 doesn¹t prove a rider has used EPO but
they knew about Pantani. Everybody did. Even that day, he showed up 15 minutes late for the drug
test and they knew he had been using a saline drip to thin his blood and get his haematocrit down
below the 50 threshold.
But everybody stayed quiet and waited for Pantani to come and animate the next mountain race. He
was a fiercely aggressive rider in the mountains and loved by the tifosi. In cheering all the way
to the summit, we hastened his descent.
There are a few good men and one of them, Professor Sandro Donati, tried to make the authorities
see sense. Donati works for the Italian Olympic Committee (Coni) but has rarely had that body¹s
support and when Donati said Pantani should not be allowed to compete in Sydney he was overruled.
Donati had asked his medical commission to test all Italian athletes going to the Olympics; they
found that Pantani¹s body was not producing red cells at that time and that what the rider needed
was medical help, not more competition. Pantani went to Sydney and the madness continued. His
health further deteriorated but he clung onto the belief that he could again be the great climber.
Maybe it was the realisation that his health just wasn¹t getting better that brought on
depression last year, when he spent two months in a psychiatric hospital. Speaking from Rome last
night, Sandro Donati expressed his sorrow at Pantani¹s death and his disgust at those who
contributed to it.
³This night,² he said, ³there are some doctors in Italy who should not sleep easily. Journalists,
too, played their part. They knew what he was doing and they urged him to go faster and faster.
When he won, they said he was a legend, when he was very unhealthy. Marco Pantani could have been a
legend by telling young people what he had done and how it had affected his life.²
It would be easy to recall the majesty of Pantani in full flight, but it would another piece of
hypocrisy. Better to remember that Pantani was destroyed by his ambition and by a sport with no
will to police itself properly.
It is also worth remembering another great climber of this era, Jose Maria Jimenez. He was a
Spaniard and they called him ³Chaba², an affectionate nickname for a man who thrilled the fans with
his daring in the mountains.
Every other year, he would win the mountains jersey in the Tour of Spain and in 1998, the same year
Pantani won the Tour de France, Chaba achieved his best placing by finishing third in the Vuelta.
Chaba Jimenez died two months ago, found dead in a psychiatric hospital. There was talk of cocaine
but cycling people knew what it truly was. Another grim reminder of the carnage caused by a sport
that has long been out of control.
Belgian cyclist Johan Sermon has been found dead from apparent heart failure in his sleep. He was
21 and rode for the Daikin team.
--
Steven L. Sheffield stevens at veloworks dot com veloworks at worldnet dot ay tea tee dot net bellum
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