Product Description

At 9:30 pm on 14 February 2004, former Tour de France winner Marco Pantani was found dead in Rimini. It emerged that he had been addicted to cocaine since Autumn 1999, weeks after being expelled from the Tour of Italy for blood doping. Conspiracy theories abounded - that he was injected in his sleep by a business rival, that the Olympic Committee had framed him, that Italian Industrialists had engineered his downfall, etc etc. If none of these is entirely true and none of them fully explains Pantani's personal tragedy, none of them is foundationless. This book debunks the myths and makes surprising revelations. About Pantani's personal tragedy, but also about the world of cycling. Matt Rendell had access not only to court transcripts but to many of Pantani's friends and the doctors who treated him. But Pantani's life is about much more than drug addiction. Lance Armstrong described him as 'more of an artist than an athlete - an extravagant figure ...' Despite being plagued with injuries he won both the Giro and the Tour in 1998, something very few cyclists even attempt. He was an inspirational icon, and the remarkable wins against all odds make gripping reading.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #19680 in Books
• Published on: 2007-06-06
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 324 pages

Matthew Syed, Times
"[Rendell's] not inconsiderable acheivement is to convey the sordid reality of the Tour while simultaneously adding to one's yearning for its lost idealism"

Review
"[Rendell's] not inconsiderable acheivement is to convey the sordid reality of the Tour while simultaneously adding to one's yearning for its lost idealism" (Matthew Syed Times )

Chris Maume, INDEPENDENT (4.7.06)
'[a] sad, exhaustively detailed and beautiful book...This book, unflinching though it is, serves as a fitting, ambivalent tribute - to the man, and to the dark heart of the sport he loved.'

Customer Reviews

Riveting, disturbing, and quite sad
After a slow start this book becomes "can't put it down" material. Rendell's research is exceptionally detailed and you really get to understand how doping benefits cyclists. Delving into Pantani's personal life is where the book excels, rivets, and upsets though. Reading about his decline and cocaine problems was extremely moving, and even after putting the book down for an evening my mind would still be going over the content. Well worth reading, whether you're a cycling fan or not. The fine line between genius and madness is well revealed here, showing how the gifted Pantani slipped onto the wrong side of the line.

A compelling lifting of the lid on professional cycling
I found this book moving, stunning, exciting and ultimately tragic.
I love professional cycling but in the English speaking media we rarely get much detail beyond the headlines. This book gives you the excitement that makes the sport so fantastic but shows how clear it was Pantani and most of the rest of the Italian peleton doped there way to dominance. We thought they had, but Matt brings the threads together in a well written account.

Even for non cyclists Pantani's rise and fall into addiction is a compelling and salutory tale.

Recommended.

Cheers Matt.

Deeply depressing
For anyone who has any interest in sport, this is a bleak, depressing read. Pantani killed himself - deliberately or accidentally we'll never know - but behind that wasted life is an even more appalling story of the utter corruption of a sport, the perversion of medical science, the destruction of many talented young lives, and the infuriating greed and dishonesty of hundreds of people within the cycling industry (I hesitate to call it a sport).

As noted elsewhere in these reviews, there is a lot of complex science in Rendell's account, but don't get hung up on that. The principles and general thrust of the evidence are clear - Pantani was a medical freak and a cheat even before he was a pro.

The first hundred pages or so are tough going if you are not a rabid cycling nut, as they explore Pantani's life and career through to his first drug test failure. It seems overly detailed, but it makes perfect sense when you start to read of Marco's long descent into drug-addled madness in the second half of the book. Rendell skillfully draws a picture of a rising sporting icon, and indeed a national hero in Italy, and then gradually draws back the curtain to show the awful truth.

Was anyone in cycling clean during this period? Are they now? Good questions ...