Marco Pantani: it was Valentine’s Day, the last arrival

We abandoned him in a hotel room in Rimini, we denied him our feelings, almost forgotten only to reconvert us after his death , on Valentine’s Day, February 14, 2004 . The autopsy revealed that the death was caused by pulmonary and brain edema resulting from an overdose of cocaine.

Mother Tonina still shouts for justice, many things do not add up, she feels it, she has sent several times to reopen the case, then closed: «It was a murder and not a suicide».
Interceptions speak of the intrusion of the Camorra , referring to the episode of Madonna di Campiglio, which by altering Pantani’s blood led him to be excluded from the 1999 Giro d’Italia .
The death of the “Pirate” has left all fans not only of cycling dismayed: with our heads down, we regretted the loss of a great runner, one of the most popular , influential and beautiful Italian sportsmen to see since the post-war period. Protagonist of many businesses, also and above all human.

The myth of him, made up of simplicity and sacrifice, has penetrated into Italian popular culture , embracing every moment of everyday life. From the look of her bandanato the races between friends made by shouting his name through his commitment on two wheels: he won the Giro d’Italia in 1998, for the first time, and in the same year also the Tour de France , 33 years after Felice Gimondi . And who forgets the incredible success in the Les Deux Alpes stage

The Giro-Tour combination is a successful undertaking for a few, very few . He retired, and returned in 2000 but he was no longer the same: during the Tour de France he sketches a challenge with Lance Armstrong , some skirmishes, some final jolts, before leaving US domination. Music
also celebrated it, praised it and pointed its finger at the blindness of those who abandoned it. Already in 1999,Litfiba have dedicated to Marco Pantani the song Take your years in hand , published in 1999 on the album Infinito . Unlike all the others, this is the only song written when the cyclist was still alive:
Time runs on the wire mark our path
I already know that he always wants to have won it a
tough duel over time with the past and the present
and even today I will have to sharpen my nails
the red light says “there is current”
because something stimulates my mind
my future and in the past and in the present
hey, where are you
what are you waiting for
play your game will never be over
the uphill time race is perhaps my favorite.
Then there was Riccardo Maffoni with Man on the run ; Francesco Baccini and his Di lui In Fugue ; Alexia wrote Without a Winner . Many different artists such as Gli Stadio who wrote specifically for him And I get up on the pedals , in which they integrated the lyrics of the song with some thoughts written by the cyclist himself and found on small sheets scattered in the hotel room:
And I get up on the pedals with the sun on my face
and I pull up my glasses at the finish line
but when I get off the saddle I feel melancholy
a skinny elephant who wrote poetry
just for you … only for you …
I am a champion I know this
a bit like everyone is waiting for tomorrow
in this place where I am
ask for Marco, Marco Pantani
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[/ vc_column] [/ vc_row] In February 2006, however, in the album Con me o contro di me , the Nomads dedicated the song L last climb :
You look for this winter day for
the sun that never sets
you look for it in this hotel room
alone and always with your troubles.
give me your hand let me dream
tell me if you still have
someone
waiting at the finish line or not
A hard song, but that well tells the criticism of a short-sighted society that pointed the finger at its myths and then downloaded them, according to moral and hypocritical logic, and the one written by Antonello Venditti in 2007. With Betrayal and forgiveness , the Roman singer-songwriter focuses not only on Marco Pantani, but also on Agostino Di Bartolomei and Luigi Tengo , men who have only one defect in common, not having been understood :
I remember Marco and of a hotel
naked and left there it
was Valentine’s Day the last arrival
and you cut it

this jerk world cries the champion
when no longer needed
it would take attention to the mistake today you would be here
if there was more love for the champion today you would be here

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