Thank you, Steven. Excellent article that really highlights the role the sporting press has played
in this. I haven't seen Donati's comments yet on any major site devoted to cycling.
"Steven L. Sheffield" <
[email protected]> wrote in message
news:BC54F90C.236B9%[email protected]...
> On 02/15/2004 09:37 AM, in article BC54EE6F.236AB%
[email protected], "Steven L. Sheffield"
> <
[email protected]> wrote:
>
> > On 02/15/2004 03:30 AM, in article
[email protected], "Steve McGinty"
> > <
[email protected]> wrote:
> >
> >> Hard hitting article on Pantani's death by David Walsh in the London Times
> >>
> >>
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2094-1002875,00.html
> >>
> >> 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 pax est libertas servitus est ignoratio vis est ess ay ell tea ell ay kay ee sea aye tee
> why you ti ay aitch aitch tee tea pea colon [for word] slash [four ward] slash double-you double-
> yew double-ewe dot veloworks dot com [four word] slash
