Marco Pantani: great climber, weird dude
- Thread starter bobke
- Start date
If you read the biography written by his best friend and manager Manuela Ronchi you will realise just how weird he was..... he had a lot of demons....... he also pumped more cocaine than a Columbian cargo train..... sometimes he trained and raced when he was wired as a chicken fence..... crazyman....bobke said:
Most great climbers are strange - look at the life of the recently deceased
Charly Gaul.
He went away and lived in a forest for quarter of a century after he retired,
He became a hermit.
Look at Bahamontes : another man who was quite abrasive in his dealings with
the media and the sport.
But you gotta admire them for what they do best - and that's climb like no on else!
Charly Gaul.
He went away and lived in a forest for quarter of a century after he retired,
He became a hermit.
Look at Bahamontes : another man who was quite abrasive in his dealings with
the media and the sport.
But you gotta admire them for what they do best - and that's climb like no on else!
Two wonderfully colorful and imaginative metaphors WBT. They may however leave the impression that cocaine has some benifit to a cyclist. I do not believe that to be the case. The question of why an adult and successful man plunges himself into the abyss of cocaine dependancy needs to be asked. The biography you cite has his cocaine habit developing toward the end of 1999. Not able to cope with bitterness, the assault on his reputation, the abandonment, and the predatory judicial attacks that compomised his possibilities to compete, these are the backdrops that led him to the abyss that eventually destroyed him. He was never the same rider after the exclusion from the giro 1999. His only noteworthy efforts after that time mark, were three individual stage results or so in 2000, and a fourth place on the Zoncolon stage in the 2003 giro. At no time would you hear Pantani advocating recreational drug use. Just so we can keep that clear. If you want a wierd dude that manages to get results notwithstanding some clearly bad habits, you might look to Bode Miller. He has some pretty revolutionary ideas on substance abuse and sports as well.whiteboytrash said:
WBT is awesome.
The thing that came from the book was that cycling was killing Pantani however it was the only thing he knew and the only thing he could do... he's obsessive love for his girlfriend, the persecution of the Italian police and authorities turned him to cocaine... he certainly didn't use it for performance enhancement... cocaine is really only good for short races for performance enhancement.... the drug destroyed him but he just couldn't give it up.... I have a DVD at home called "Pantani the Pirate" which is a look back on his career hosted by Phil Liggett..... it shows his 1998 winner Giro... what a ride... it also showed his 1997 Tour de France when he rode everyone off his wheel including Ullrich... he was a champion rider but had a lot of demons and he couldn't cope with them..... I suggest everyone pick up the book off Amazon as it’s a great read....
The thing that came from the book was that cycling was killing Pantani however it was the only thing he knew and the only thing he could do... he's obsessive love for his girlfriend, the persecution of the Italian police and authorities turned him to cocaine... he certainly didn't use it for performance enhancement... cocaine is really only good for short races for performance enhancement.... the drug destroyed him but he just couldn't give it up.... I have a DVD at home called "Pantani the Pirate" which is a look back on his career hosted by Phil Liggett..... it shows his 1998 winner Giro... what a ride... it also showed his 1997 Tour de France when he rode everyone off his wheel including Ullrich... he was a champion rider but had a lot of demons and he couldn't cope with them..... I suggest everyone pick up the book off Amazon as it’s a great read....
ilpirata said:
