Why Pantani?

Pantani on Alpe D'Huez 1998

I first saw the Tour De France on television in 1998 and I have been absolutely captivated by the event ever since. I have stood by the side of no-name French roads for 4 hours just to see a multi-coloured swarm of hyper-athletes stream past me in 20 seconds. I have also spent a week on top of Alpe D'Huez for the priviledge of seeing those same men haul themselves up the mountain twice in one day with sunken eyes and near-death, vasoconstricted, lactic overloaded faces.

Chris Froome (Team Sky) ITT to Mont St. Michel 2013

In no way can I be considered an athlete. I have limited mechanical skills and the last bike I owned was a Rayleigh Arena 5 Speed given to me on my 12th birthday. I do however,share the birthday of a dead Italian cyclist called Marco Pantani.

To me, Pantani is the distillation of this romantic, complex and corrupt sport called Professional Cycling. When I recently saw the film Pantani: Accidental Death of a Cyclist [IMDB link] something weird happened to me. As the film credits rolled, I decided I was going to build a bike as close as possible to the gorgeous Bianchi he used to win on Alpe D'Huez in '98 and then use that bike to climb the Alpe in under 60 minutes before next year's Tour.

It is possible I may have been slightly drunk at the time, which is probably why I told my wife about my foolproof plan. She seemed pleased and encouraged the idea - I suspect this is mainly because my last Grand Plan involved buying a barn find 1973 Citroen DS from a farmer near Lourdes (miracles, and all that).

Anyway, with Pantani as my inspiration, and my wife as my soigneur I have decided to document this folly in a blog. 

Wish me luck.