Details on adventure and tales of top rider Marco Pantani.

The body of 34 year old Marco Pantani has been found dead in a room in Le Rose di Rimini apartments in the Italian Adriatic coastal city of Rimini this afternoon.



According to reports on La Gazzetta dello Sport, Pantani went to Le Rose apartments in viale Regina Elena along the sea front in Rimini a few days ago.



But his career was blighted by doping allegations after he was thrown out of the 1999 Giro d'Italia for failing a blood test.



Charismatic and outspoken, Pantani or Il Pirata (the pirate) had a chequered 14-year career in professional riding which saw him recover from terrible injuries to achieve international status. They knocked on the door of his room and found it locked from the inside. They finally gained access and found Pantani's partially clothed body on the floor next to his bed.



The cause of death is not yet known, although according to initial information from the Rimini police, Pantani did not die a violent death. Italian newsagency ANSA is reporting that possible pharmaceutical products (anti-depressants) were found next to his body.



The coroner will come to examine the scene and there will be an autopsy on Monday according to Italian law.



The news of Pantani's death has swept through the Italian cycling community like lightning, and people are extremely upset to hear it. Italian national coach Franco Ballerini was quoted by La Gazzetta dello Sport as saying that, "This is huge, it doesn't seem real.



But there were setbacks, too.

Television programmes were interrupted to announce the demise of a hero whose fragility was part of his charm. His career was thought to be over but after a year-long period of recuperation, Pantani returned more aggressive and determined than ever before.

Appearing in public 12 months ago with one ear still bandaged, the other stuck back to his head, Pantani struck a tragic figure as he vowed the operation symbolised a change in his life.

For cycling his death is yet another blow to a sport dogged by drug scandals and the early deaths of riders from heart attacks suspected, in some cases, to be induced by performance enhancing drugs. He was alone.



He was capable of spontaneous gestures almost unique in a world of manufactured sports stars. Pantani's ability to bound up the Alpine slopes effectively saved the Tour from self-destruction, although the Italian also acted as a ringleader in the riders strikes and go-slows as the peloton protested over what they regarded as police persecution. He promptly took it to the mechanic's toolbox, took out a screwdriver and turned it into a perfect etching. Having dominated that year's Giro, on the second to last day he was ejected from the race after blood tests showed he had excessively high hematocrit in his body - taken as a possible, but not definitive, indication of doping..

It was a victory which was overshadowed by revelations that year that drug use pervaded the competition. But Pantani brought a lot of new people into cycling and I was asking him when he would come back. Overnight, he went from a two-wheeled legend to cycling's equivalent of Ben Johnson, mired in legal action and racing bans for the next four years..



Slowly but surely Pantani became the scapegoat of a sport buckling under the pressure of high-level police investigations and a chain of doping scandals. The Italian found himself in the dock in a series of court appearances for sporting fraud. He was cleared of the charges after four years of investigations, but the damage - both to his reputation and his own fragile character - had been done."



Reactions from the peloton

Reached at his home in Gerona, Spain, five time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong told Cyclingnews Sunday morning that "This is terrible and shocking news.

If that was the beginning of his redemption, it was completed when his magic returned and he won two mountain stages of the Tour de France, beating off challenges from Armstrong. Regardless of our battles on or off the bike, I had a deep respect for Marco. She was with me during the bad times and I dedicate this day to her."



Giuseppe Martinelli, Pantani's former direttore sportivo at Mercatone Uno was still friendly with the former Tour & Giro winner and his bittersweet comments today spoke volumes...



Last summer Pantani booked himself into a clinic for depresson, 15kg overweight. And then he was all alone and fragile.

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