Struggling with the Pantani Book

HungryCol

Anyone else finding, or found, the Death of Marco Pantani book hard going? I'm 33 pages in and struggling with keeping an interest in it. Should I keep going or is the rest of the book the same? Am I a bad person if I don't care if he cried after finishing second in some race I've never heard of in some small village I've never heard of at the age of 16. I've started skim reading :?

Don't tell me what happens at the end of the book

shockedsoshocked

I missed out tha majority of the information of his blood tests etc. Seemed more like a medical journal than a biography most of the time.

APIII

I found it picked up eventually. The interesting part came later in the book, once you learn about the sheer amount of cheating that went on. No one should be surprised of course, but some of the stuff that went on was pretty unbelievable. :shock:

Ste_S

I gave up reading it.

The middle part was quite interesting in places - I didn't know some riders had their own centrifuges to test haemocrit levels the night before a 'surprise' dope test.

The miniature of the first part of the book as Hugrycol pointed out, isn't that interesting, and the last part of the book charting Pantani's descent after the ban isn't particularly easy reading for completely different reasons.

vermooten

Keep going - I loved it even though Pantani was way before my time

jimmythecuckoo

Well worth sticking with, an epic tale.

The hard going part is the background so it will enhance the understanding later on.

Salsiccia

Persevere with it, as all the medical stuff makes sense later on. I found it hard going (I'm not much of a reader) but when I got to the end I thought that overall it was a very rewarding, if tragic, read.

spen666

is it an autobiography? :twisted: :?: :twisted:

HungryCol

spen666 wrote:

is it an autobiography? :twisted: :?: :twisted:

... he says very dead Pan....

(Allez le double entendre)

mercsport

" is it an autobiography? "

No . It's a biography .

Keep at it . It's a good read eventually after the ' infanzia ' cobblers which is obligatory with any biography .
It's well written and without the exclamatory style favoured by the sensationalist breed of journalist . It certainly had me gripped for the duration of a 'bucket'n'spade' break last year and converted me to the sceptical side of the argument re. the integrity of our cycling heroes , including the mighty Lance , although he didn't figure much other than the 'fuelled up' duels he had with Marco .
It was a revelation to this innocent to learn of the midnight activities that some of these 'loaded' riders had to put themselves through . For example : go to bed with heart rate monitors that activated an alarm to wake'em up when their h/r fell below a certain level - say 40bpm - and then to get on the rollers in their bedroom to rev. up again to thin down their blood before they could try and go back to sleep ! ? :?
The medical stuff is necessarily a little dense , but , stick with it , it'll make sense . The other revelation was how easy it is ( ..was ? ) to mask the evidence of loading yourself up to the gills , and how apparent 'carelessness' about being late , if only by a few minutes , or absent for a drugs test makes all the difference in the world . And we're sending Christine O ...u to the Olympics as a paragon of English athletics ?
A shame about Marco , I rather liked the lad .
I read Kimmage's 'A Rough Ride' immediately afterwards but his book is from an earlier perspective , despite the updates ( ..he doesn't rate David Millar ). Interesting nonetheless . I was intrigued to sense that Kimmage despised Matt Rendell for some reason that was unclear to me . Yet they both appeared to be on the same side of things .

bigjim

I thought it was worth reading. Just don't try to get that involved in the medical details it gets too complicated. Thought it was a good insight into the pro racing world.

Jim

spen666

mercsport wrote:

" is it an autobiography? "

No . It's a biography .

... .

did he co-operate with the author, or did he refuse to speak to the author? :twisted: :roll: :twisted: :?: :twisted:

mercsport

" did he co-operate with the author, or did he refuse to speak to the author? "

Methinks yer windin' me up . :P

heavymental

I thought it was a good read. I didn't bother trying to understand all the ins and outs of the science so skim read alot of that but got the picture on those issues. I felt that it gave a good picture of the whole story and is pretty much the definitive read on the subject...in contrast to the Manuela Ronchi book which bikradar reviewed favourably for some reason.

LangerDan

spen666 wrote:

mercsport wrote:

" is it an autobiography? "

No . It's a biography .

... .

did he co-operate with the author, or did he refuse to speak to the author? :twisted: :roll: :twisted: :?: :twisted:

Perhaps its ghost written

(Gets coat, exits stage left)

Richie G

Must admit i found this book really hard going too. I found the early part difficult to get into and then it just turns into a medical journal! I'd just finishing Put Me Back On My Bike at the time, which i found much more enjoyable and an easier read! Maybe didn't help that i concluded that Pantani sounded a bit too weird - if i can't relate to someone i find it difficult to stay interested.
So are we gonna start a book review forum now?

spen666

LangerDan wrote:

spen666 wrote:

mercsport wrote:

" is it an autobiography? "

No . It's a biography .

... .

did he co-operate with the author, or did he refuse to speak to the author? :twisted: :roll: :twisted: :?: :twisted:

Perhaps its ghost written

(Gets coat, exits stage left)

i found the book a haunting experience

heavymental

Richie G wrote:

Maybe didn't help that i concluded that Pantani sounded a bit too weird - if i can't relate to someone i find it difficult to stay interested.

I concluded that too. Although he's a bit of a hero of mine I think to be around him must have been fairly unpleasant. He was a coke addict after all, not the easiest people to get along with and being very shy too I imagine he came accross fairly strange.

dennisn

I read a lot and have found that just because someone was or is famous doesn't
mean that his life story is any more or less interesting than yours or mine. To be
honest books like this seem to be read more by, for lack of better words, hero
worshippers. Out of curiosity I read it and found it to be about an ordinary human
being, nothing special, just someone who let drugs get the best of him.


Dennis Noward

redvee

Is this the book?

http://amazon.co.uk/gp/product/07538220 ... d_i=468294

Had a look last night and too many MP books to be sure which one this topis is about. done the LA book and need some more reading material soon.

Salsiccia

dennisn wrote:

To be honest books like this seem to be read more by, for lack of better words, hero worshippers.

I admired Pantani as a rider, but once it appeared he was dodgy i.e. 1999, Madonna di Campiglio, that admiration waned. He was never really a hero of mine. I read the book to (hopefully) find out more about his story, and found it a very informative and hopefully accurate and impartial account of events. That is why the science stuff is an integral part of the read, because it explains much we find out later on (I'm trying not to spoil it!).

Salsiccia

redvee wrote:

Is this the book?

http://amazon.co.uk/gp/product/07538220 ... d_i=468294

Had a look last night and too many MP books to be sure which one this topis is about. done the LA book and need some more reading material soon.

Yes, Redvee, that is the one.

mercsport

Dennisn said " I read a lot and have found that just because someone was or is famous doesn't
mean that his life story is any more or less interesting than yours or mine. To be
honest books like this seem to be read more by, for lack of better words, hero
worshippers. Out of curiosity I read it and found it to be about an ordinary human
being, nothing special, just someone who let drugs get the best of him. "

For lack of better words : bollocks :!:

Monty Dog

I thought the book was well researched - perhaps too in-depth for some, but I think it conveyed Pantani's troubled character and life and the parasites that contributed to his downfall. Rendell doesn't make any judgements - just tries to convey the story from a number of perspectives. It certainly isn't a sycophant's tale and I suspect that a previous poster hasn't read it, because I don't think any 'fan' would get much enjoyment from the content.

afx237vi

I agree that some of scientific minutiae was a bit hard-going, but I though the book gave a great insight in to what Pantani was like a person (as Monty says, Rendell doesn't lay on the hero worship, but gives an honest, unbiased opinion.)

The thing I found most interesting was how utterly used Pantani was by the people who should have been helping him. His "friends", his manager, his team, even his family. Sad.

dennisn

mercsport wrote:

Dennisn said " I read a lot and have found that just because someone was or is famous doesn't
mean that his life story is any more or less interesting than yours or mine. To be
honest books like this seem to be read more by, for lack of better words, hero
worshippers. Out of curiosity I read it and found it to be about an ordinary human
being, nothing special, just someone who let drugs get the best of him. "

For lack of better words : bollocks :!:

So, for lack of better words, I'm assuming you knew him personally? I only read the book
and that's what I got out of it. You say "bollocks" but offer up no new insights that you would have to share if you had known him.

dennis noward

mercsport

Dennis , apologies for my 'throw away ' comment on the highlighted text of yours . An off the cuff thought that crossed my mind as I was about to switch off the works and hit the sack but came across your post .

But , for a fact , you've got me baffled . Why should I have known Pantani to allow me to rubbish your notion that to have read Rendell's book I would've had to be a 'hero worshipper ' ? :? I'm old enough to have been the lad's father , and then some . :roll:
" I read it and found it to be about an ordinary human
being, nothing special, just someone who let drugs get the best of him"
Why then do we have competitive sport if not to recognize the extraordinary amongst us ? Pantani was extraordinary and therefore deserving of the word ' special '. That he shared the frailties common to the rest of us is hardly a revelation .
Rendell's measured account of Pantani's brief life is wholly lucid and , for me a window into a world I was but dimly aware of .
I'd love to see what Matt Rendell's take would be on the living , breathing , very ' special ' Lance Armstrong . I'm sure that would be a good read . :shock:

dennisn

I guess I feel that there are very few extraordinary people amongst us. Pantani,
Armstrong, Tiger Woods, etc. are not extraordinary to me by any sense of the word.
They were / are good at what they do but so are plenty of other people who work at
more "common" jobs. Like you and I. Just because they were good at sports does not
make them special or heroes in my mind. My heroes are the people who would come and get me if my bike broke down in the middle of nowhere. The ones who did their best to
raise me. Family and friends I can count one if I need help. Not some sports "hero" who
killed himself with drugs. I love sports and competition but have never had a sports
hero. I take that back. In my childhood all I ever wanted to be was like F-1 driver
Jimmy Clark. My young dream world ended when he died.

Dennis Noward

ricadus

Looks like we have our own Pantani-like character:

http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/21022008/ ... ioned.html

heavymental

Poor fella. He's someone who needs the right people around him too. Sad to see.

redddraggon

ricadus wrote:

Looks like we have our own Pantani-like character:

http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/21022008/ ... ioned.html

.....with unconfirmed reports of erratic behaviour involving compulsive computer gaming.

Perhaps I need sectioning aswell?