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If Tadej Pogačar is able to win the 2024 Tour de France, he’ll have achieved a feat no male rider has managed for 26 years: win the Giro d’Italia and Tour in one calendar year. The man who last did the Giro-Tour double was the Italian Marco Pantani, often regarded as one of the best climbers the sport has ever seen.
This year’s Tour de France shares another link with Pantani. Following the race’s Grand Depart in Florence, Italy, stage 1 concludes in the city of Rimini. It was in Rimini that Pantani lost his life in February 2004 as a result of a cocaine overdose. Stage 2 of the Tour starts close to Pantani’s hometown of Cesena.
You’ll hear plenty about Pantani in the opening days of this year’s Tour, and indeed toward the end if Pogačar looks set to complete his historic double. What better time to take a dive into the Cor Vos photo archives and recognise the rider and entertainer that Pantani was?
Of course, it should be acknowledged that Pantani’s racing career and indeed his legacy were tarnished by doping, and many people believe that shining a light on riders like Pantani does a disservice to the sport (and those who raced clean at the time). A counterpoint: it’s still possible to appreciate the performances of the sport’s biggest stars and the way they animated the sport while acknowledging they were flawed as athletes and humans.
That’s not to condone or support doping in anyway; more an acknowledgement that Pantani and his ilk were racing at a complicated time for the sport, with realities far different to the present day. There’s no doubt Pantani was a troubled individual, but equally, his impact on bike racing shouldn’t be denied.
Let’s dive in.
A fresh-faced Pantani at the 1994 Worlds in Italy.The following year, at the 1995 Worlds in Colombia (note the Spinaci aero bars, banned not long after) …… Pantani rode to third place behind Abraham Olano and Miguel Indurain.At the 1995 Milano-Torino, not long after Worlds, Pantani collided with a car and broke multiple bones. He didn’t race for most of the 1996 season, but his 1997 season was a good one, highlighted by the Tour de France. Here he is on the attack in that Tour.Pantani would win two stages in the 1997 Tour …… stage 13 to Alpe d’Huez and stage 15 to Morzine-Avoriaz.In the end Pantani would finish that Tour in third overall, 14:03 behind winner Jan Ullrich. That’s Richard Virenque in second, 9:09 down on Ullrich. Pantani had also been third at the 1994 Tour.If Pantani’s 1997 season was good, his 1998 was excellent. At the Giro he won two stages – to Piancavallo on stage 14, and Plan di Montecampione on stage 19.He took the leader’s pink jersey on stage 17 …… and held it through to Milan to take his first Grand Tour victory. Note the luft on Pavel Tonkov’s cap here.The Giro wouldn’t be Pantani’s last Grand Tour success for 1998.Pantani started slowly at the 1998 Tour, and after the stage 7 ITT, he was down in 43rd place, 5:04 behind overall leader – and defending champ – Jan Ullrich. That Tour was one of the most troubled in history, marked by the Festina bust, police raids and rider protests, and mass departures from the race; just 96 riders finished in Paris.But Pantani started clawing back time …… moving his way up the GC, and closer to Ullrich, when the race went into the mountains.Pantani won to Plateau de Beille on stage 11, moving up to fourth overall, but it was on stage 15 – the first day in the Alps – that Pantani put in perhaps the most memorable ride of his career.More than three minutes down on Ullrich at the start of the day, Pantani went on the move on the Col du Galibier with around 48 km to go …… and in thoroughly wet conditions …… won the stage solo by nearly two minutes, almost nine minutes ahead of Ullrich.That gave Pantani the lead with less than a week to go.While Ullrich pulled back time in the days that followed, including 2:35 in the stage 20 ITT …… Pantani had done enough to win the Tour, becoming the seventh rider in history to complete the men’s Giro-Tour double.Pantani came into the 1999 Giro d’Italia as the defending champion …… and managed to win four stages to give him a lead of nearly six minutes before the final stage.Here he is in the stage 18 individual time trial. TT setups have changed a little in the last 25 years.
While Pantani was leading after 20 stages, he didn’t finish the race. A blood test before the final stage showed a hematocrit reading of 52% – higher than the allowed 50% limit. He was expelled from the Giro, forced to take two weeks off racing, but suffered no further punishment. And yet, he stayed away from racing until the following season.After an average Giro in 2000, Pantani went to the Tour de France.There he’d come face to face with defending champion Lance Armstrong …… with whom he’d do battle on a memorable stage 12 to Mont Ventoux. With the two away together, Armstrong appeared to gift Pantani the stage, much to Pantani’s displeasure.Pantani and Armstrong would do battle again in the days that followed, with Pantani ultimately winning stage 15 to Courchevel as well (Armstrong was winning the Tour by more than seven minutes by the end of that day, more than nine minutes clear of Pantani). That win to Courchevel would be Pantani’s last victory as a professional.While Pantani raced on after 2000, he never reached the same heights that he did in the late 1990s. Here he is at the 2002 Giro. It’s strange seeing him in a helmet. When he left the 2002 Giro on stage 16, he was 75th overall.The 2003 Giro would be Pantani’s final Grand Tour in his final season.Here he is on the attack on stage 19, en route to 12th on the day and 14th overall. His best result for that Giro: fifth on the Monte Zoncolan. Pantani would be dead less than nine months later.After Pantani’s shock death in early 2004, large crowds came to his funeral. Nowadays, a statue honouring Pantani can be found in Cesenatico, not far from his hometown of Cesena. It’s in Cesenatico that stage 2 of the 2024 Tour de France will begin.
