Road Bike Racing - Bye bye Marco Pantani

Not that this is really special news, but it seems pretty official that Pantani is done for good.

from cyclingnews:



Marco Pantani, who considers himself a retired cyclist, is still interested in the sport and is reportedly considering a new direction: team management. According to an article in La Repubblica, Pantani and his manager Manuela Ronchi have been in contact with Manolo Saiz to discuss the possibility of a management position with Saiz's new team for 2004, to be sponsored by Italian electrical company Stayer.

"I always have my bike with me, but one can forget about the professional cyclist Pantani," the Italian said last weekend.


Anyone have any words on this? What do you all think of Marco Pantani? What are your favorite moments of his career? Les Deux Alpes in the 1998 tour? d'Huez in 1997? Or maybe the 1999 Giro? :D

Think he has a future as being a team manager?

One of my least favorite riders ever.

Adios pirate dude.

Pantani was a good rider when he was riding ... no more can really be said on that subject.

As far as his future as a team manager ... what team would want a sketchy, unpredictable, and really not all that experienced team manager. When you think of his wins you find a few that were in actuality quite sporadic unfortunately. No classics wins that I can remember, no world champion races, just some sporadic experience in and sketchy results in the majors. I really don't see any teams, with the possible exception of an extremely desperate one that wants the name, taking a chance with him.

Back in 1998 I was planning a bike tour from Sweden to Rome with a friend. To get some inspiration I watched the 1998 Giro, the first bike race I followed. We ended up going to a couple of the places the Giro went to. At that point I was not yet the mountain mad man I am these days, but I was inspired by his constant attacking in the mountains. We started our tour two days before the Giro ended. When we got to Rome the attendant at the camping site in Rome called us Pantani... so I figured he had won. Got back home in time to catch a couple of minutes of the TdF, including his winning attack on a snow covered Galibier. Of course, winning both the Giro and the Tour the same year, combined with a great comeback story (in the mid-90s I believe he broke both his legs and doctors doubted he would walk again), made him my favourite rider.

The 1999 Giro ended that, and almost my interest in professional cycling. However, the image that I guess I will remember best is when he was on the ground in this year's Giro after he and Garzelli crashed together. The disappointment in his eyes and finding the strength to finish the stage. To me, he ended his career in a good way.

/Csson

Pantani and Saiz should work out really well together. I can just see the first first management meeting now....Pantani starts talking in the third person and Saiz pulls out a knife and carves him up calling his mother a *****.
Hey works for me....two psychos with one stone.

Wh0re is a banned word?????????? I mean this is what Saiz said when he threatened the camera man.

The team could be called "The phsychoist's".

Outside of Italy, Pantani worked as a racer for two reasons - he won races, and he was controversial. Since he's not winning races now, his only real virtue for most of the world is gone. This fact alone will keep him out of a successful position in coaching/management. Notice that I state “a successful position”. The Italians will always love Pantani for purely nationalistic reasons. They will accept, and love Pantani in a management role, as they have for the past few years as a racer. In this role, Pantani could still flourish in a big way. I say adios, and good luck to him! :D

I'm gonna miss those ears. Hell the ears alone are worth 5 mph in a stiff tailwind. Not too useful in a headwind however. I guess he tapes them to the sides of his head in adverse wind.

What badger said.

But for what it's worth, he was a participant in some of the most epic TdF stages in my memory (such as it is).

I can still hear Phil Liggett... "Pantani has attacked! He's dancing on the pedals!" And the camera would show Marco effortlessly kiting away on some 15% climb.

My scan of Il Pirata is that he rode well as long as he was doped to the gills.

I actually kind of liked the arrogant little trash talking baldy. He was colorful. He was not, however, a nice guy.

If I owned a team, I might let Pantani work for it. He could hand the towels to the racers when they came out of the showers. I certainly wouldn't give him a position that required any skills in human relations.

He was a great climber, no doubt about it. And he certainly was colorful. ANd his fans just love him, and he seems to be really devoted to them. And for all his controversy, he does good stuff- he auctioned off one of his yellow jerseys for charity, etc.

He seemed to come back and do pretty well this season, after bailing out of the giro last year. He was high in the standings for a while. That stage on the Zoncolan was one of the best mountain stages this year, with him and Garzelli suffering together, and the fans going crazy! They were screaming and cheering them on, it was just great. And then Pantani finished in fifth, a great ride. ANd then he looked so dejected after crashing but he continued on even after losing like 15 minutes. If that was his last giro, at least he had a pretty exciting one.

Since I could never ride to his level, I would be a fool to criticize him. He did provide a lot of theatrics that made the grand tours very entertaining...

My favorite Pantani moment was the 2000 Tour de France on the Hautacam. My second favorite moment was when Armstrong learned you never give nothin' to nobody. Mt. Ventoux. Then Pantani opened his mouth. And Lance shut it.

The guy won a lot of races on drugs. Italian cycling, unfortunately, has a recent legacy that is not good. Too many of their riders have been caught. Pantani was a leader in that.

Pantani- great climber, great cyclist. Sexy as hell- loved the bald head (it's a fetish of mine when it comes to Pantani ;) ). He really made the cycling sport pretty colorful.

I'm gonna miss him... :cry:

Koffee

I´m gonna miss the pirate, too.
Even if I had not heard or seen much of him in the last 2 or 3 years...

We can only hope he is FINALLY gone for good. He has made such statements before, only to rear his ugly head (and mouth) once again.

As for his racing talents, once a convicted doper...always a convicted doper.. Removes any sort of accomplishment from his wins. There will always be the suspicion that he won because he was juiced!

Let's hope this is the last time he "Retires"

From CyclingNews:

Pantani closer to retirement?
The rumours are getting stronger that Italy's enigmatically popular Marco Pantani is on the verge of retiring from cycling. The 33 year old has reportedly put on 20 kilos, according to an interview with his friend and Mercatone Uno team owner Romano Cenni in Tuttosport. "Marco has really finally left himself hanging," said Cenni. "He has tried starting again, however he slid into yet another deeper personal crisis."

Cenni said that he would stop the Mercatone Uno team in December. "I would have gladly remained if Marco returned, but it is pointless. Without him there is no cycling any more. The personalities that the people love are missing."

Marco Pantani has been having problems with his cycling since mid-1999, when he was thrown out of the Giro d'Italia on the penultimate day while wearing the Maglia Rosa for having an elevated hematocrit. Since then his comebacks - apart from the 2000 Tour de France - have largely ended in failure, and Pantani has had trouble coming to terms with the fact that he will never be the athlete he once was. Several doping related court cases have not helped his career, and this June he even checked into a clinic that specialised in the treatment of depression.

I always wondered if he could tune in cable TV or radio with those ears.

If he was really talented he could wiggle them to wave at fans as he rode by.

He will be missed in the pro peloton, I am sure his ears provided shade for several riders around him.

Shhhhhhh....... He'll hear you!

As for his racing talents, once a convicted doper...always a convicted doper.. Removes any sort of accomplishment from his wins. There will always be the suspicion that he won because he was juiced!


:rolleyes:

Of course... and Virenque didn't deserve to win the polka dot jersey this year. All of Anquetil's TdF wins should be tossed out. Tom Simpson should be dismissed as a drug addict. Coppi admitted to using "la bomba", so he was just another loser.

</sarcasm>

From CyclingNews:
The 33 year old has reportedly put on 20 kilos, according to an interview with his friend and Mercatone Uno team owner Romano Cenni in Tuttosport.


20 kilos?? Sweet Jesus. That's probably like a 25-30% increase in weight. Anyone know Pantani's race weight?

Body - 75 pounds
Ears - 25 pounds
Ego - 50 pounds

150 pounds of crap

one of the nicer memories were in the giro 2003. Yeah he sucked. I know someone mentioned him attacking the leaders on one of the climbs... yeah he attacked the leaders, and ended up finishing the stage minutes behind them. But the best moment was when Cipollini was behind the peleton after a climb, and Pantani had his team pull just so he wouldnt be able to catch up for the bunch sprint :lol:


:rolleyes:

Of course... and Virenque didn't deserve to win the polka dot jersey this year. All of Anquetil's TdF wins should be tossed out. Tom Simpson should be dismissed as a drug addict. Coppi admitted to using "la bomba", so he was just another loser.

</sarcasm>

Virenque showed the public that you can cheat and win. He showed his fellow racers that you can get caught cheating, and come back with great success. Ohh how sweet. "dont use EPO! If you do, you might win the KOM competition 5 times!"

But seriously, if you taint the image of cycling like that, as Pantani did, I dont think your accomplishments really deserve applause.