Gifted athlete, troubled soul - Rated 
The first time I saw Marco Pantani was in the 1994 Tour De France on the stage up to Hautacam and he was being tailed by the mighty Miguel Indurain. Pantani shook his head at the way the yellow jersey came up to him but that was because Indurain knew who was the real threat. A comical little figure balding with slight frame and very prominent ears; with an unorthodox way of going downhill, his backside just above the back wheel. Not everyone was capable of doing that!
In 1998, Pantani captured the "maillot jaune" in the wake of the Festina scandal - could Pantani have beaten Virenque that year? We will never know; but it is the same with boycotts, you compete against who is there and do your best - not be compared with "ifs" and "buts". There is no doubt that Pantani was a gifted athlete but the book shows him as a troubled soul. He was cursed with bad luck and terrible injury such as the time of the Tour of Italy when he had a badly broken leg and it seemed he would never race again.
The book goes into great depth over the EPO and haematocrit levels allowed in cycling and we see pictures of Pantani's artistic efforts. He even became a part-time rapper as he did a rap song "Pedalo, Pedalo" for the Tour of Italy that he had to miss with injury.
Matt Rendell writes with informed sensitivity about Pantani, his early life, the beginning of his career with Carrera, then Mercantone Uno and leads us into the downward spiral ending with his untimely death.
Yes, Pantani did win the 1998 Tour but whether one can say if it was a tainted yellow jersey is open to debate; he was exciting to watch in the mountains - his cycling playground. Was he homosexual? Who knows - it is not for us to pass judgement on him now as he cannot defend himself - one's sexual proclivities don't affect your sporting prowess - it's just who you are.
The book shows us that Marco Pantani was a gifted cyclist who was a joy to watch but his demise was tragic. May he now know peace.
Hard to put down - Rated 
I must admit I'm not the most ardent cycling fan but had always been interested in hearing about 'Il Pirata' or 'Elefanto' as some people knew him. From the very start you get the feeling some awkward subjects are going to be addressed and they certainly are. Its hard to understand as a relative outsider why the corruption and drugs problem in cycling isn't addressed. Marco was a star and it would be a shame if his death had no lasting effects. After the shambles that have been the Tour de France for as many years as I can remember you might think that Marco and many other stories might spur someone to do something but as yet nobody has addressed the issue. If you liked this or are remotely interested in professional cycling buy a book by journalist Paul Kimmage called "Rough Ride", available on Amazon, it provides an excellent insight into a problem spanning many decades. Marco, you may be gone but you haven't been forgotten.
You will finish this book with a sigh - Rated
I am a life-long cyclist and an enthusiast for the Tour de France, mostly because that is the race that I can usually follow on the television in England. I knew that drug-taking was common in racing but I put it to the back of my mind when I watched the race.
This book has helped me to understand both the extent of the drug-taking and the reasons for it. I remember the commentators talking about Marco Pantani when he was at his height. They were giving us clues when they talked about the way his performance varied from day to day. In this book you will learn about Marco from a child and the drive to succeed that he had. You will read about his meteoric rise in the sport and the incredible physical feats of which he was capable.
However on the dark side the whole sorry tale of drugs is exposed. I now know what is taken and why. I know about the attempts, often half-hearted at best, to eradicate or control them. But above all I can now see why outstanding athletes like Pantani, whose abilities I find awe-inspiring, need to take dangerous chemicals to give them just that bit more performance or endurance.
This book has altered my view of the sport. I don't even know whether I will watch it again. What the author can't tell us is his knowledge or suspicion about who is still using drugs. He does hint when describing investigations, but in any case Pantani is the subject of the book. I am sure that like me you will finish this book with a sigh and wish that these incredible men could be released from the need to abuse their bodies and show us what they are genuinely capable of. It would be more than enough.
Pirate of the Alps - Rated
I'm a big cycling (well to be more precise, Tour de France) fan and Pantani was always one of those characters who fascinated me, more so than the more successful but colourless Indurain, Armstrong et al. For the football fans amongst you, think Maradonna against Shearer.
Flawed genius, fallen hero...pick your cliche for the little man with the big grudge - against life, cycling, his team, himself...just about everything.
This book is very well written, extremely detailed, and while Matt Rendell writes in a detached, factual style, this does not make Pantani's sad and inevitable demise any less harrowing. Rendell delivers the facts with authority and great attention to detail. This is not feel-good stuff and can be difficult but so was Pantani's short time on this planet.
Giant with Feet of Clay. - Rated
Just because I gave a less than stellar review to Matt's more recent book on the Tour de France, I thought it only fair to contribute my thoughts on this one as well - because it's superb.
Meticulously researched, beautifully written, detailed, moving and horrifying by turns, this book is both a grisly account of the disintegration of a personality, and the story of one of the greatest cycling talents ever. Marco Pantani, Il Pirata as he is known from the piratical headscarf he sometimes wore, was a doper, a cheater and an addict - and one of the most amazing cycling mountain-climbers of all time; a mass of contradictions who still provokes awe and deprecation in equal amounts. Matt Rendell brings out the many sides of this complex personality in his disturbing and sometimes cold-bloodedly factual account.
If anyone should dispute the figures Matt quotes, by the way, there's one small but telling piece of evidence of their authenticity: namely the writer's puzzlement at the .wdb suffix to the filenames of the doping records. Apparently this unfamiliar format made them very difficult to recover! However any old-skool PC user will recognise this as the suffix of an antiquated MS Works Database format, for the simple-minded cut-down database which was supplied with the (surprisingly useful IMO :) ) MS Works suite for pre Win '98 versions of Windows. That Matt was genuinely puzzled by this says volumes for his integrity if you think about it. You couldn't make it up!
But seriously: this is a biography of Il Pirata, from his earliest involvement in cycling to his ignominious death from cocaine overdose in Hotel Residence le Rose, Rimini, in 2004. But the book's title is The *Death* of Marco Pantani; not 'The Life'. If you read this book, you will understand why; Marco, as Matt says, 'had been dying a long time'. This book is immensely sad; it is also a must read for any cycling fan. Highest possible recommendation.
|
