 
The 14 February 2004 Marco Pantani is found dead in his room, at a motel in Rimini. The Champ Rahman has died of a heart attack following a cocaine overdose: the body is lying, resting your head. The room is upside down with writing on the walls and on each corner there is a minimum space to restore a thought, ID card included. What mark writes are not thoughts, but screams remained deaf, shout out to a lonely man looking for help, but abandoned by the world, even from himself. Only, As always, as again, as the last in that anonymous motel. Just as when riding his bike climbing the peaks of the tour and the tour, that the consecrated to the Olympus of cycling. For the bandana he wore to protect his bald head from the Sun, the fans gave him the nickname pirate: all, but everyone, they know that the pirates are fearless and brave men, the first to join the fray, to want everything. Pantani was a pirate, but atypical: fragile, shy and withdrawn, He blushed even to sing his "Romagna mia". The frailty of man was compensated by the tenacious athlete, on which had made lever several times to overcome the most difficult moments: as that incident to the Milan-Turin in October 1995, decreed by doctors as the end of his career. Marco trained day and night and came back stronger than before. The first time I went riding made him his home garage, in Cesenatico, with these parents and a friend who filmed the event with a video camera: around the perimeter of the garage was enough for him to hear of new old ones feeling that only the bike he knew to try, "You have seen that I can still ride a bike". The pirate came back to win it all, Giro and tour in the same year. In 1999 another shot, This time fatal: in Madonna di Campiglio, Marco Pantani is presented to the world as a doped cyclist, a corrupt, exposed to public ridicule; escorted by police outside the hotel commented ruefully: "I fell so many times and I've always raised, but this time I shall rise again ". He was right, Pantani remained there, Madonna di Campiglio, at that rate of hematocrit of 52, He had paid for it myself, for an entire world that, a few years, turned out to be even worse, between blood transfusions and taking performance-enhancing drugs. Then it was realized that Pantani had paid for it myself and too, but it was too late to retrieve the sample. But cycling is made up of sensations, of love and passion and the best memories of Paddy are those cultivated by the fans in the memory of our country: the champion at the foot of the climb was watching the opposing warriors, dropping the bandana, controlled the bike gear, moved in the hands on the handlebars, He gets up on the pedals and took. Today for Marco and Marco stays are so much sadness and pity for one man, exploited at the height of his career and then abandoned. Gotti won the giro in 1999 with merit, but on the streets did not feel what you felt:
“The strongest emotions I tried them along the streets, When I heard the people screaming so much Paddy that I was being a headache”
Marco Pantani
Roberto Rossetti
