46 Facts About Marco Pantani

Marco Pantani was an Italian road racing cyclist, widely regarded as the greatest climbing specialist in the history of the sport by measures of his legacy, credits from other riders, and records.

Marco Pantani recorded the fastest ever climbs up the Tour's iconic venues of Mont Ventoux and Alpe d'Huez, and all-time greats including Lance Armstrong and Charly Gaul have hailed Pantani's climbing skills.

The narrative has been cultivated by Marco Pantani, who picked the nickname "Il Pirata" because of his shaven head and the bandana and earrings he wore.

Marco Pantani's style has been contrasted with that of time-trialling experts such as the five-times Tour winner Miguel Indurain.

Marco Pantani was born on 13 January 1970 in Cesena, Romagna, the son of Ferdinando and Tonina.

Marco Pantani joined the Fausto Coppi cycling club of Cesenatico at the age of eleven.

Marco Pantani finished 12th in his first professional race, the Gran Premio Citta di Camaiore.

Marco Pantani was forced to abandon the race in the 18th stage due to tendinitis.

Marco Pantani won two consecutive mountain stages, earning his first victory as a professional in the fourteenth stage to Merano.

Marco Pantani ultimately finished the race behind Eugeni Berzin but ahead of Miguel Indurain, who had won the two previous Giros.

That same year Marco Pantani made his Tour de France debut, coming in third and winning the young rider classification along the way.

Marco Pantani finished thirteenth and claimed his second successive best young rider prize.

Marco Pantani won a stage at the Tour de Suisse and finished third in the 1995 World Championships road race in Duitama, Colombia, behind Spaniards Abraham Olano and Miguel Indurain.

Marco Pantani returned to the Giro in 1997, but he was injured when a black cat caused an accident in front of him during one of the first stages.

Marco Pantani returned to action at the 1997 Tour de France and won two stages in the Alps, establishing a record time for the climb of Alpe d'Huez and winning two days later at Morzine.

Marco Pantani holds the second and third fastest time at 36'55" in 1997 and 37'15" in 1994, followed by Lance Armstrong at 37'36" in 2004 and Jan Ullrich at 37'41" in 1997.

In 1998, Marco Pantani was considered a favorite to win the Giro d'Italia.

Zulle won the initial prologue in Nice and won the sixth stage to Lago Laceno, but Marco Pantani recovered some time in the mountain stage to Piancavallo.

Marco Pantani lost further time to his main rivals during the fifteenth stage, an individual time trial in Trieste.

Marco Pantani was thus able to maintain his lead to win the Giro d'Italia with a minute and a half over Tonkov and more than six minutes over Guerini.

Marco Pantani won the Mountains classification and finished second in the Points classification.

Marco Pantani pulled back these early time losses to Ullrich, first in the Pyrenees by taking 23 seconds off Ullrich in the stage to Luchon and winning the stage to Plateau de Beille, where he took an additional minute and forty seconds from Ullrich.

Marco Pantani launched an attack on the ascent of Galibier, forty-eight kilometers from the finish.

Marco Pantani stopped to put on a rain jacket at the summit to win on the final ascent to Deux Alpes.

Marco Pantani became the first Italian since Felice Gimondi in 1965 to win the Tour and the seventh rider in history to achieve the Giro-Tour double, a feat which no one had achieved since Miguel Indurain succeeded in 1993.

In 1999, Marco Pantani started the season by winning a stage and the overall classification of Vuelta a Murcia as well as a stage at the Setmana Catalana de Ciclisme.

Marco Pantani was leading the Giro d'Italia, with only one mountain stage left, when a blood test at Madonna di Campiglio showed that he had a 52-percent hematocrit reading, above the 50-percent upper limit set by UCI.

Marco Pantani was expelled from the race and forced to take a two-week break from racing, with no further action taken.

At the time of his disqualification, Marco Pantani had won four stages and held a comfortable lead of five minutes and thirty-eight seconds over Paolo Savoldelli and led in the points and mountains classifications.

Marco Pantani stayed away from the rest of the year's races.

Marco Pantani lost time and could not attack until the last mountain stage to Briancon, in which he helped his teammate Stefano Garzelli to win.

Marco Pantani was off the pace in the Pyrenees, but matched Lance Armstrong on Mont Ventoux, leaving the field behind.

Marco Pantani said that he felt insulted by the gesture, causing bad feelings between the two which were exacerbated when Armstrong referred to him as Elefantino, a reference to his prominent ears.

Marco Pantani was banned for eight months by the Italian Cycling Federation but later won an appeal due to an absence of proof.

In 2003, Marco Pantani made another comeback in the Giro d'Italia, finishing 14th overall.

Marco Pantani's best stage result was a fifth position after launching an unsuccessful attack on the slopes of Monte Zoncolan, while he launched his last attacks on the nineteenth stage to Cascata del Toce.

Marco Pantani told an Italian newspaper that cycling fans had to forget about Marco Pantani as an athlete, while stating that cycling was the last thing on his mind and that he had gained weight.

The trial for the 1999 Giro d'Italia irregular blood values began in April 2003 and Marco Pantani was eventually acquitted because doping was not considered a crime by the law at that time.

Marco Pantani claimed that the insulin had been planted and that he did not stay in the room that night.

In 2006, two years after his death, Marco Pantani was linked to the Operacion Puerto doping case.

In 2006, Jesus Manzano, a Spanish professional road racing cyclist whose statements led the Guardia Civil to conduct the Operacion Puerto investigation, disclosed in an interview with French television channel France 3 that Marco Pantani was a client of Fuentes.

Matt Rendell's biography of Marco Pantani suggests he used recombinant erythropoietin throughout his professional career.

Marco Pantani spent the last days of his life isolated from his friends and family and barricaded himself inside his hotel room.

Biographies and accounts on the life of Marco Pantani have been written by sports journalists John Wilcockson and Matt Rendell, among others.

The Memorial Marco Pantani has been organised annually since 2004 in his memory.

When Mortirolo was included in the Giro for the third time in 1994, Marco Pantani attacked and left everyone behind to earn a win at Aprica.