Yes he was self destructive and a coke addict, and that type of lifestyle has nothing redeeming about it. There are points I feel you are missing Denia, both intellectual and historical. Is it not possible that a person can be chastised and stripped to a point where they wish to escape reality if not life. Pantani as an adult is responsable for his actions. But what of the persecutors? I say they bear some responsability.
I will include some of my previous compilations on the topic, and you are welcome to check back some of my posts for more information. If you have the patience hihi.
{After years of saying how Marco had been pumping himself with epo and how even his greatest victories were put into question. The procurator who had persecuted Marco with allegations of sporting fraud had asked for extra information from the autopsy convinced that there would be irrefuteable evidence of doping. However the performing doctor (Dr. Fortuni) gave the following statement in a live interview “After all statements over the years that had been written about Pantani and doping, I had expected to see evidence of bone marrow damage, I was surprised to find that it was integral and completely normal. This means that Pantani could not have used any significant quantity nor for any significant length of time the epo.” When pressed further he says “yes it leaves irreversible signs in the bone marrow”. For two days no major Italian paper prints this story. On day three a modified statement supposedly from Dr. Fortuni ( though without the interview), appears in the big papers: “ that certainly Marco Pantani had not used epo in the last period of his life”.
The procurator was named Guariniello. He has jurisdiction in Turin. It is he who in recent times has taken a number of testimonies from soccer players of the famous Juventus club. Many have admitted the use of epo, and other elicit performance enhancers, but they were only testifying as witnesses. It is clear that a certain medical assistant will take the fall, and then later on appeal get a reduced sentence. Conversely, in 2000, Pantani is indicted for sporting fraud (for suspected use of epo in 1995) and suffers a disqualification of 6 months. Naturally on appeal, the charges are dropped because in 1995 there was no rule against high hematocrit, and it is was not a crime. But the damage in peace of mind, money, time, and reputation was done.
This Guariniello had uncovered hospital records (5 years old at the time) of Pantani with high hematocrit following the accident at the 95 Milan- Torino where he had that terrible fall that cost him a season. A race the man was not trying to win (riding in the back of the pack). Doctors for the defence provide that it is not unusual for an athlete who is dehydrated and with trauma, bone fractures, contusions, and blood loss to have high hematocrit. Guariniello is able to find other doctors who will testify the way he prefers. Who were these doctors i.e. scientific advisors? Doctors Benzi and Ceci, who were part of CONI's anti-drug commission! Naturally this obvious conflict of interest was part of the defences appeal of the first decision (Pantani found guilty of sporting fraud). At the appeal hearing (where the case was thrown out, see above) Pantani’s lawyer Cecconi makes the following statement "There are also a lot of scientific guidelines on the oscillations of hematocrit. The advisers for the prosecution considered an oscillation beyond 2-3 percent anomalous. In another court case dealing with doping (Bologna), the scientific advisers made reference to scientific studies conducted in the USA in which oscillations of up to 70 percent were explained. There are many controversial aspects and a highly qualified expert could clear them up,"
There is also the testimony of Renato Vallanzasca ,
Here is an excerpt from his autobiography. Renato during the time of the 1999 giro was serving a prison sentence. The book entitled “Flower of Evil”, came out in November 1999:
‘I was at dinner, a young man that I knew came up to me and said “Renato can I speak with you for a moment alone? Renato, you are a good guy and deserve all my respect if it wasn’t for all this ocean of a prison you have heaped on yourself. Therefore, I would like to give you a gift..If you have a few thousand to invest play it all on the Giro d’Italia. Place it on Gotti, Jalabert, o whoever you think best. I can’t tell you for sure who will win, but I am certain it will not be Pantani."
"I have just learned that for the bald one things will go badly. And the stronger he pedals in the next few days, the more you will make betting on someone else.."
In reality, even before the stop for the hematocrit, on the bald one fell some curiously bad luck: at the start of a climb his chain fell off. I said to myself, ah here is where they have sabotaged him. But it wasn’t to be, because after a minute or so he was up and riding again, and went on to win the stage in the way that is uniquely his. That day and then again in the next few days and so with the end of the giro approaching I said to myself: To make him lose they will have to shoot him.
I began to have serious doubts about the information I had received. And yet I thought it very improbable that someone would have dared to give a suggestion that could have cost me thousands of dollars. Then of course came the bombshell news: Pantani stopped for high hematocrit!
At the presentation for his book, Vallanzasca said he was willing to speak with Guariniello the judge. But he was never allowed to testify at any of the 7 legal proceedings brought against Pantani for sporting fraud.
In any event 1999 was the first year that betting on the Giro was allowed. Now you may start to think, Hmmm. Yes this is a country famous for it’s sport betting scandals. Remember Paolo Rossi. In 1981 Paolo Rossi, a tremendous young soccer talent had to serve suspension as a result of a semi- uncovered game fixing scandal. Luckily he finished his suspension and went on to lead Italy to a world cup in soccer. No thanks to the betting mafia.
When there is money to be made, who cares about a sport hero.
It is now known (but not widespread knowledge of course) that 373 million lire were bet on Pantani to win the overall classification for giro 1999, for a required payout of 605 million lire should he have won. The odds had started at 2/1 but as the bets came in, later dropped to 1.1/1. A total of 480 million lire were bet on the overall classification winner. Only 15 million were bet on Ivan Gotti (the eventual winner). A neat swing of basically a half a million dollars in the favor of the betting mafia!
What else? We have the testimony of Marco Velo and Siboni who were ex-teamates of Pantani, who declare that every number of strange phone calls were received by Mercatone team the night before the infamous blood test. Reporters and opposing team riders asking “is it true Marco is not to start tomorrow?”
According to Roberto Pregnalato the massage therapist for Mercatone Uno team, journalists that were following the giro that year, already knew the results of the blood test that would exclude Pantani from giro 99, half an hour before the blood was even drawn. They had attended a meeting of the organizers the night before.
In the nationally televised show Porta a Porta, both Velo and Pregnolato were quickly cut off mid- sentence and hustled off stage while the show went to commercial break, yes they had started to recount the events surrounding the June 5th exclusion of Marco Pantani at Giro 1999.
If it wasn’t a setup why does Marco Pantani pass the team hematocrit test the night of the 4th with a measurement of 48 and then get the same result at Dozza Imolese hospital three hours after getting the infamous out of the norm result of 52 on the 5th.
Why hasn’t anyone tried to find out why Pantani (without ever having tested positive to any antidoping control) has been so clamorously and insistently investigated, incriminated, and condemned in first degree, by so many tribunals without even a law that claims the suppositions as a crime.
Why the procurator of Florence, who ordered the blitz of giro 2001 has not been asked why in three years there was not done a DNA test on this siringe found in a room (a room rented by Mercatone Uno but not necessarily Pantani’s room) in a hotel that Pantani had abbandoned a day earlier to see if it was used by Pantani. Instead Marco pays 8 months of disqualification, and the truth is never to be officially known.
Or to Dr. Ajello (PM of the antidoping comission for CONI) why it was never asked , in one of the numerous spaces dedicated to him in the major papers, how come he resigned from his job, because he was “scandalized by the absolution of Pantani given by CAF”? As it turned out a useless absolution because not recognized by the UCI and yet he did not resign or become scandalized for the soccer players who were actually found positive by the antidoping tests and nothing done?
What about on the eve of the 2000 Sydney olympics when several Italian athletes were found with high hematocrit and growth hormone traces, but the papers only mention Pantani who was on the high end of normal.
Pantani was said to have passed the tests, but the head of CONI's medical commission, Pasquale Bellotti, said he was not satisfied in an unofficial letter which was then reported by the Italian press.
"I just don't understand that,
Marco Pantani is perfectly within the regulations regarding these tests. I have had enough of cycling being constantly targeted. It's irresponsible." said Hein Verbruggen who criticised both Bellotti and Sandro Donati, who is leading an anti-doping campaign in Italy.}
QUOTE=Denia] Unfortunately for him, he burnt out far too quickly as he spiralled downwards as a result of accidents, injuries and, of course, his massive coke habit. He was incredibly self-destructive and, as Rendell highlights with his account od MP`s numerous car accidents, lucky he didn't kill himself much earlier than he actually did. I defy anyone to read the latter chapters of that book and come away still believing that MP was a victim.
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