The Giro visits the Mortirolo.
In 1994 very few people knew who Marco Pantani
was. He had taken the 'Baby' Giro, the amateur
version of the Giro d'Italia in 1992. So some
were aware of his potential as a stage racer.
In 1993 he signed a contract with Carrera, then
led by Claudio Chiappucci. He raced his first
professional season without distinction, and
abandoned his first Giro.
Miguel Indurain had taken both the Giro and
the Tour for two years running, and he was the
target that everyone was shooting for. He was
a great time trialist, two years earlier he
authored an unforgettable TT in Luxembourg
during the Tour where no other rider had come
within three minutes of his time. He was also
one of the best mountain climbers, and only in
rare instances was he threatened on a climb.
One of those rare instances was the Tour stage
to Sestriere in the 1992. And the protagonist
there had been Pantani's teammate, Chiappucci.
Marco had done little to attract attention for
the first two weeks as the Giro worked it's way
to Austria. What followed were two ugly days in
the mountains with a difficult warm up day and
then a day that no one would forget. Three
monster climbs including The 27km long Stelvio
and the less well known but insanely steep
Mortirolo.
The first day was hard, going over five passes
including the Passo delle Erbe that was removed
from this year's stage 17. Pantani began the
day in tenth place on GC, 6:28 behind Berzin in
pink. He attacked that day and finished alone in
Merano. It was a great and noteworthy ride moving
him up to sixth place. But there was more.
The Stelvio climbs 1873m (6145ft) over the 27km
of road. This was followed by a road that climbed
1300m (4265ft) in less that 13km for an average
gradient of over 10%. The stage finished in
Aprica after scaling the Valico S. Cristina, a
relative baby of a climb by still another 658m
(2158ft) of uphill.
Pantani continued the offensive. He was first
past the summit of the Mortirolo, and there was
panic behind. Eventually caught back he attacked
again on the remaining climb and did not look
back. He finished alone again, and it would be
almost three minutes before his captain
Chiappucci would arrive in second place, 3:30 to
Indurain, and 4:06 to Berzin. He had transformed
the race and over those two days he had replaced
the great Indurain as the rider of the most
danger to Berzin.
He would finish that Giro as the runner up. And
everyone now knew who he was. Indurain would later
state that it was Pantani that provoked his
devastating attack attack at Hautacam a month
later in the Tour.
Today, as the Giro passes the Memorial Pantani on
the Mortirolo, we should pause to remember when he
passed that point and people were just beginning to
realize the gifts that he possessed.