- Feedback
- View
My cycling hero, I have been lucky enough to meet him and have a proper chat and he was a thoroughly class fella
Pantani Film Full ~ Accidental death of a Cyclist *youtube
- Thread starter ChromeChainstay
- Start date
Nothin-fancy
Dirt Disciple
If you doped while alive, you don't become a saint that didn't dope after death...
He may not have been a jerk like Lance but the guy was still a doper. The fact remains that 99% of the top riders from 93-2003 we're likely using EPO. It would be naive to think otherwise. Look at how many have admitted it or admitted and retracted it or the retroactive tests that showed probable usage.
Attitudes like this are what allows *holes like Lance to continue to make money while being a lying manipulative jerk that destroyed people's lively hood to maintain his lies.
And as far as modern doping goes, they just haven't figured out Poga's regiment yet. I find it highly suspect that he's dominating while being on a team who's manager was caught doping twice and gets mad if it's brought up and keeps having it erased from his Wikipedia page. I'd be a little more understanding if he admitted it and said it was his past but he's trying to be a better person now.
I mean the movie actually has a part where Pantani says to his mom how cycling is basically a Mafia and how it's big business and the cyclists being billboards for the sponsors and all that matters is being up front...
He may not have been a jerk like Lance but the guy was still a doper. The fact remains that 99% of the top riders from 93-2003 we're likely using EPO. It would be naive to think otherwise. Look at how many have admitted it or admitted and retracted it or the retroactive tests that showed probable usage.
Attitudes like this are what allows *holes like Lance to continue to make money while being a lying manipulative jerk that destroyed people's lively hood to maintain his lies.
And as far as modern doping goes, they just haven't figured out Poga's regiment yet. I find it highly suspect that he's dominating while being on a team who's manager was caught doping twice and gets mad if it's brought up and keeps having it erased from his Wikipedia page. I'd be a little more understanding if he admitted it and said it was his past but he's trying to be a better person now.
I mean the movie actually has a part where Pantani says to his mom how cycling is basically a Mafia and how it's big business and the cyclists being billboards for the sponsors and all that matters is being up front...
The very definition of a gentleman !Unassuming, sensitive and such pure class and drive/dedication.Was lucky enough to have been in a Champion of Champions Newtownards 25 presentation/ talk as he arrived on the Friday evening and he could have been just another of the clubmen ,similarly on the course recce/club run the morning before the event .
PanoIgano
Fat Chance Fan
Pantani was the real nemesis of Armstrong even if for a little while. He would have certainly denied a few of Armstrong tour wins if not most had he retained his top form. Indeed Armstrong was relieved to see his downfall as this open the doors to his complete domination of the sport.
Both men fought the dopping status quo of the day. One lost his life in the process while the other his soul.
Pantani thought that he would be forgiven for over dominating his rivals and so he had to be taught a lesson in Giro 99 of who is the boss. Indeed you can’t annihilate opponents and strip sponsors from visibility expecting thing to continue as they are.
Armstrong having understood this tried and succeeded to untangle doping from teams directors and coaches and run the whole operation himself. He invested massively on his image and tried to intimidate the Tour organizers and sponsors with his foundation and outside of sport activities specifically because the French public and the organizers never got along with him. His refusal to speak French and engage with the French public even though he was living most of the year in France is a testament to this.
Pantani remains the biggest if of recent cycling history.
Both men fought the dopping status quo of the day. One lost his life in the process while the other his soul.
Pantani thought that he would be forgiven for over dominating his rivals and so he had to be taught a lesson in Giro 99 of who is the boss. Indeed you can’t annihilate opponents and strip sponsors from visibility expecting thing to continue as they are.
Armstrong having understood this tried and succeeded to untangle doping from teams directors and coaches and run the whole operation himself. He invested massively on his image and tried to intimidate the Tour organizers and sponsors with his foundation and outside of sport activities specifically because the French public and the organizers never got along with him. His refusal to speak French and engage with the French public even though he was living most of the year in France is a testament to this.
Pantani remains the biggest if of recent cycling history.
PanoIgano
Fat Chance Fan
In his autobiography he mentions explicitly that he was fired from a French team that offered him a contract for the 95 season I think because he refused to get under the doping regime! Hats off to him!
Canuk
Old School Grand Master
I always felt bad for Obree that he never got a fair crack at a professional career on the continent, (apart from a very brief spell with Le Groupment) there was definitely a good living to be made riding track and invitation pro time trials, I'm sure he would have done well. The UCI and British Cycling did him no favours , quite the opposite. They should hang their heads in shame, what a talent squandered, gone unsupported. He could have been a tremendous asset to British cycling as a coach or team manager.
Boardman had a go at being a continental Pro but it never really worked out for him, the big Tours and the mountains were not really his forte, there's the rub, the irony.
Pity Graeme wasn't racing in the fifties and sixties he'd have had a brilliant career as a six day rider on the track. I guess the corporate cycling world wasn't ready for a guy who could design, fabricate and race a world beating aerodynamic bicycle from scratch without the help of hi tech labs and cutting edge engineering advances in materials science.
I've met him a few times (I had a very pleasant train journey with him about 25 years ago), always enigmatic, a great raconteur about cycling, and always very genuine and enthusiastic about everything else. I know a fair bit about his back story, the poverty he came from, his depression and his marital troubles and his sexuality, all of which would've crushed a lesser man. A true cycling legend, it's a shame he's not more appreciated or well known outside of 'the guy who built a bike from a washing machine'. Not seen him for a few years now, but wherever he is, whatever he's doing, I hope his arse is resting on a comfortable saddle! I know he still puts the miles in with his local club, the sign of a real champion who doesn't forget his roots.
Photo Obree with Francesco Moser
Boardman had a go at being a continental Pro but it never really worked out for him, the big Tours and the mountains were not really his forte, there's the rub, the irony.
Pity Graeme wasn't racing in the fifties and sixties he'd have had a brilliant career as a six day rider on the track. I guess the corporate cycling world wasn't ready for a guy who could design, fabricate and race a world beating aerodynamic bicycle from scratch without the help of hi tech labs and cutting edge engineering advances in materials science.
I've met him a few times (I had a very pleasant train journey with him about 25 years ago), always enigmatic, a great raconteur about cycling, and always very genuine and enthusiastic about everything else. I know a fair bit about his back story, the poverty he came from, his depression and his marital troubles and his sexuality, all of which would've crushed a lesser man. A true cycling legend, it's a shame he's not more appreciated or well known outside of 'the guy who built a bike from a washing machine'. Not seen him for a few years now, but wherever he is, whatever he's doing, I hope his arse is resting on a comfortable saddle! I know he still puts the miles in with his local club, the sign of a real champion who doesn't forget his roots.
Photo Obree with Francesco Moser
Attachments
Last edited:
Similar threads
