Marco Pantani's victory at the 1998 Giro d'Italia marked the apotheosis of his roller-coaster career, the sporting high-point of his tragic life story and the final moment of uninhibited, innocent celebration of a national sporting hero in Italy.
Pantani went on to win the 1998 Tour de France and so completed a historic Grand Tour double. But that race was marked by the Festina Affair, doping raids, arrests, scandals and a feeling that things finally had to change. It was the end of a doping era, even if Lance Armstrong quickly ushered in another.
The 1998 Giro d'Italia was Pantani's personal Icarus moment, before his dramatic downfall precisely a year later when he failed a haematocrit test in Madonna di Campiglio and was disqualified from the race while wearing the maglia rosa. Soon after he started to use cocaine, lost the desire to race and train, blamed everyone but himself for his problems, and started a downward spiral that would ultimately lead to his death on St Valentine's Day in 2004.
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Twenty years on from the 1998 Giro d'Italia and 14 years since his death, Pantani remains an almost legendary figure in Italy. His mother Tonina is still fighting to defend her son's honour but has gradually moved from denying to accepting that her son probably took EPO like most other riders in the 1990's. Pantani's death stopped him from growing old and revealing what really happened during his tumultuous career. His teammates and friends remain in embarrassed silence, preferring to let Pantani rest in peace.
Everything was so different and so naturally joyful for the tifosi in May, 1998. EPO abuse was widespread, despite the introduction of the haematocrit test, but Pantani seemed untouchable. The full extent of the use of EPO and other doping methods was still mostly unknown to the Italian public at the time. They only saw Pantani's melancholic smile and admired his ability to attack all his rivals in the mountains and solo away to victory. He was considered a skinny, climbing David, taking on the Goliaths of the Grand Tours. He was someone to cheer for, a nice guy who was losing his hair even in his twenties, who had risen from his humble roots on the Adriatic coast to inspire a generation and a nation.
Taking on Zülle, defeating Tonkov
Pantani in Rosa
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