Pantani's 98 TdF winning bike on display

vermooten

You can describe a person is any number of ways: cyclists, cokehead, son, celebrity etc. You choose which way you go with it. I prefer: "The bike of a Tour De France winner...."

foxexpress

Pantani was an electrifying rider, one who when he started to pull away in that slightly lop-sided way on the drops, would make the hair stand on the back of your neck.
When he died on that Sunday morning, I was in the bright sunlight of Spain and I have to admit I shed a tear.
But that was then and this is now, and hawking his bike around the country like Elvis’s wig for mawkish people to gawp at is just not the done thing.

Bronzie

foxexpress wrote:

But that was then and this is now, and hawking his bike around the country like Elvis’s wig for mawkish people to gawp at is just not the done thing.

The REALLY sad thing is that 95% of the people walking past it in the shop will probably think "Marco who?".

dave_1

foxexpress wrote:

Pantani was an electrifying rider, one who when he started to pull away in that slightly lop-sided way on the drops, would make the hair stand on the back of your neck.
When he died on that Sunday morning, I was in the bright sunlight of Spain and I have to admit I shed a tear.
But that was then and this is now, and hawking his bike around the country like Elvis’s wig for mawkish people to gawp at is just not the done thing.

I like this one.. humbles livestrong http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wx5Zer4XJkg

Titanium

Nice video, he may be discredited but he still beat others who are equally or even more discredited and were all on the same things. It's nice to see him blow Liestrong away in the video. I will always vividly remember when he attacked on the Galibier in 1998 to win the Tour de France, it was exactly 15:43 CET when he went clear at Plan Lachat.

Where you do distinguish between Pantani's bike being on display and Armstrong's images which still adorn almost every bike store?

dave_1

Titanium wrote:

Nice video, he may be discredited but he still beat others who are equally or even more discredited and were all on the same things. It's nice to see him blow Liestrong away in the video. I will always vividly remember when he attacked on the Galibier in 1998 to win the Tour de France, it was exactly 15:43 CET when he went clear at Plan Lachat.

Where you do distinguish between Pantani's bike being on display and Armstrong's images which still adorn almost every bike store?

Indeed, who wasn't prepared? So I can still appreciate the merits of his performance that day...especially him throwing out the texbook 'element of surprise' type advice and making a pace from the front that forces them to give up trying to follow, plus climbing on the drops...ultimate in powerful climbing! It's a shame he's not around now

timoid.

Dave_1 wrote:

Titanium wrote:

Nice video, he may be discredited but he still beat others who are equally or even more discredited and were all on the same things. It's nice to see him blow Liestrong away in the video. I will always vividly remember when he attacked on the Galibier in 1998 to win the Tour de France, it was exactly 15:43 CET when he went clear at Plan Lachat.

Where you do distinguish between Pantani's bike being on display and Armstrong's images which still adorn almost every bike store?

Indeed, who wasn't prepared? So I can still appreciate the merits of his performance that day...especially him throwing out the texbook 'element of surprise' type advice and making a pace from the front that forces them to give up trying to follow, plus climbing on the drops...ultimate in powerful climbing! It's a shame he's not around now

If he was around now, he'd have been busted in the Fuentes affair by having a blood bag cunningly coded Il Pirata and there would be much wailing, beating of breasts and gnashing of teeth by the great and the good of this forum at the horror of it all.

flattythehurdler

So, back to topic. Is it his bike (in which case I'll go in and pay homage) or isn't it?

andyp

flattythehurdler wrote:

So, back to topic. Is it his bike (in which case I'll go in and pay homage) or isn't it?

The conclusion was that it's not. It's got 1999 Record on for a start.

RyanBrook

I've seen the bike in the store, one of the store clerks said they had to beg Bianchi for the bike for months on end before getting there hands on it. It is a very well ridden bike. It has a special pirate adorned saddle and tubeless tyres by the looks of things ( I don't know whether they were used then or not). It does have the shifters on the tube.

I think it one of the bikes he used during the tour, probably one of about 5 or 6.

Drugs or no drugs he was a tour de france winner and I got shivers for a couple of seconds when I saw the bike. Same goes for Lance, his feats are legendary drugs or no drugs. If you are going to oust them from the sports history you need to throw out all the history, Merckx-drugs, Indurain-drugs, Ullrich-drugs, Coppi-drugs, Hinault-drugs.

IMO these guys are all legends and the manner of their victory was just the way of the past, if you didnt take drugs you couldn't win.

fizz

Theres some more pictures in this thread and some more details about that particular bike

http://bianchi.com/community/forums/thread/1992.aspx

I remember watching Marco do his stuff, I liked the unpredictability of him, you never knew what he was going to do, but when he did decide to do something it was normally spectacular IMHO.

Matt Rendell's book "The Death of Marco Pantani" is a good read I think, a good mix of science and what Marco himself was like as a person. He was / is one of my idols, but the fact that I think he was a doper doesnt sit well with me.

bigdawg

re the bike yes it is one of pantani's tour winning bikes

a friend of mine runs a shop and is a main bianchi dealer, this bike was bought round by the bianchi rep (whos name was coincidently bianchi :? :shock: ) around 2001 and was on display for a day, its very very light, as youd expect.

During the tour pro riders have numerous bikes at their disposal so effectively there could be 50 marco tour winning bikes doing the rounds at the shops at any one time, hence the differences in stickers, bars levers etc... providing it can be proved it was ridden during that tour it then becomes a tour winning bike.

dave_1

bigdawg wrote:

re the bike yes it is one of pantani's tour winning bikes

a friend of mine runs a shop and is a main bianchi dealer, this bike was bought round by the bianchi rep (whos name was coincidently bianchi :? :shock: ) around 2001 and was on display for a day, its very very light, as youd expect.

During the tour pro riders have numerous bikes at their disposal so effectively there could be 50 marco tour winning bikes doing the rounds at the shops at any one time, hence the differences in stickers, bars levers etc... providing it can be proved it was ridden during that tour it then becomes a tour winning bike.

One rider with 50 bikes for 3 weeks? His mechanics must have been working 24hrs a day. I think 3 or 4 road bikes 2-3 TT macchines max... 50??...he'd have had to have his own massive truck just for his bikes...why would someone need 50 bikes?

redddraggon

I don't think a team would drag around 50 bikes for the whole team, let alone one rider.

bigdawg

:?

read what I said ''.....so effectively there could be 50 marco tour winning bikes ...'''

jeez, what a pedantic lot.... :roll:

pantain used to do his own mechanics as far as i know, every night he used to strip down the bike he was riding, and the bike he'd be riding the next day, literally down to its base parts... at the time it was put down to him being a perfectionist, but in hindsight was probably some kind of compulsive disorder....

ms_tree

Pantani's bikes are in his Museum in Cesenatico - www.spaziopantani.it - including Bianchi time trial bikes and road bikes, the Wilier he road in the 2003 Giro, the one he used when riding for Carrera and his first bike. This used to be in the Bar Corsa but that is closed as the roof fell in.

LangerDan

I find this sort of "official" tat far more offensive that touting his bikes around the shops:- http://www.spaziopantani.it/dettagli.asp?Codice=443

I'm sure someone far smarter than I could come up with a theory equating the Pantani iconography with the relics of St. Francis or Padre Pio. I'm just surprised that website doesn't contain testimonials about how someone's dying granny was cured by touching the hem of Pantani's jersey.