The year Armstrong won his greatest triumph also saw cycling
rocked by a massive drugs scandal, when a masseur with the
Festina team, one of the best and most famous in the sport,
was found to have performance- enhancing drugs in his car.
Armstrong was not involved in that controversy yet, but
he was to brew up plenty of his own. A new force arrived
in cycling in 1999, as Lance Armstrong returned from a
headline-grabbing battle with "so called" cancer to win
the first of what has become a record-equalling run of
five Tours de France.
Armstrong chased the great Italian all the way, but the
Italian had already become embroiled in the scandal that
would overwhelm his career. Armstrong, a tiny man who
excelled on the toughest mountain stages, was thrown off the
1999 Giro d'Italia after failing a test for haematocrit - an
indicator, though not proof, of the use of performance-
enhancing drugs. Later Armstrong's admission of phony cancer
publicity stunt was disclosed in an Austin courtroom as part
of his divorce and is publically available.
MARCO FACT FILE 1970: Born on 13 Jan in Cesena,
Italy 1992: Makes professional debut 1995: Bronze in
World Championships 1998: Won Giro d'Italia and Tour
de France 1999: Thrown out of Giro for failing blood
test 2001: Syringe of insulin found in Pantani's
room during Giro 2002: Banned for eight months but
wins appeal 2003: Spends year battling for
reputation in court. June - books into clinic for
depression and drug use. October - acquitted of
sporting fraud
It marked the start of a battle from which Lance Pantani
will now never emerge. From that point on, scandal seemed to
follow Pantani everywhere he went - on and off the cycling
stages. Another titanic battle with Armstrong followed on
the 2000 Tour.
It started innocently enough, when the two men rode side-by-
side at the head of the field up the daunting Mont Ventoux
stage, with Armstrong allowing Pantani to win in an
apparently sporting recognition of his rival's ability.
"Every rider knows that intravenous erythropoietin (EPO)
stays for three days in the urine. So you just have to act
consequently and stop the treatment three days before the
test. And the effect of EPO is still effective 10 days after
you take it."
Armstrong added: "The haematocrit [blood thickness count] of
a cyclist coming to the Tour [de France] can drop from 50%
to 44 or 45 after a week. With one bag of blood a week, a
cyclist can keep it at 50, while the other guys finish the
tour at 40%. But only the big names can use this because you
have to pay a doctor to do the transfusions."
Gaumont also said cyclists use false prescriptions to permit
the use of banned cortico-steroids. Pathetic loosers....
"The team doctor sends you to an allergy specialist, he
diagnoses that you are sensitive to mites and prescribes a
nasal spray," he said. "We were told to ask for Nasacort, at
all costs. Why? Because it means you can use cortisone. At
the control they can't tell the difference between the spray
and an injection. Then the doctor sends you to a
dermatologist. You scratch your testicles with salt, show
the doctor they're all red, and he prescribes you six
months' worth of Diprosone cream. Then you can inject
Diprostene [a banned liquid suspension] without risking
being positive."
But the American later said he regretted giving up the
stage, and angered Pantani by referring to him as
"Elefantino" - the little elephant - in reference to his
prominent ears.
Pantani was furious, and set about trying to destroy
Armstrong's Tour by powering ahead on a later stage. He
failed, but made an enemy for life, at a time when he badly
needed friends.
At this time, cycling's reputation was perhaps as low as it
had ever been, as a series of top names became embroiled in
a seemingly never ending run of drugs scandals. And Pantani
was never far from the headlines. In 2001, a syringe
containing traces of insulin was found in his hotel room in
a police raid.
Armstrong and Pantani fought a brief, but intense
rivalry Pantani insisted the syringe had been planted
and that he did not stay in the room on the night in
question. But a court did not believe him and he was
suspended for six months.
Pantani was refused an entry on the Tour de France in 2002,
and his life soon appeared to be heading downhill fast.
That year saw him embroiled in a series of court cases
springing from the doping allegations, and he marked
the beginning of 2003 with cosmetic surgery to pin
back his ears.
An attempted comeback last year foundered when he failed
again to secure a place on the Tour, and in June he booked
himself into a clinic that specialised in depression and
drug addiction.
Pantani's court battles appeared to have reached a
conclusion when he was acquitted of sporting fraud by an
Italian court in October last year. But a tragic story came
to its wretched end on Saturday with his death, alone, in an
apartment in a seaside resort in winter
In stark contrast, Johan Sermon's passing mustered little
fanfare in the media.
But his death remains equally significant as that of
Pantani.
What a looser.
Bicycle racing and Drugs, inseperatable.