Pantani movie

[Parsnip Totin Jack ★]

Last night I went to see the Cincinnati screening of Pantani - Accidental Death of a Cyclist.  I thought it was very good.  Beautiful and majestic are not worthy to describe the scenery but that's the best I've got.  Seeing the old school racing was great, Jalabert, Aquetil, Indurain riding old school steel frames with downtube shifters and no helmets.  The movie followed Pantani's career interviewing mentors, contemporaries, teammates and relatives.  Most of the dialogue is Italian or French with subtitles (except for Phil Liggett).  I had forgotten about Pantani's crash in the 1995 Milan-Turin race.  (He collided head-on with a car during a descent and broke his leg in several places).  The movie covers the Festina doping scandal and subsequent fallout during that year's TdF.  Pantani tested for a high red blood cell count during the 1999 Giro and was suspended for two weeks.  Things started to unravel for him at that point.  The aim of the movie at this point is to paint a picture of Saint Pantani, how he was set up to fail, the Giro was fixed by unscrupulous characters.  I came away with the impression that doping was prevalent in most tours, there's too much money at stake for the sponsors and teams to look the other way.  Science was used to not only develop lighter, faster, more aerodynamic equipment but to develop undetectable ways to improve the human body's performance.  It worked for a long time.  Pantani was a colorful character who could climb hill like few others.  i loved watching him attack going up 8% grades.  He dies too soon.  That was sad.  After the movie I wanted to go for a ride.

 

I don't think Cincinnati will get many more of these screenings.  In attendance was me, a couple and six guys.  Nine total.

[Nate]

thanks for the write up

 

 

I like watching the race footage from the 80s and 90s, too. No helmets, downtube shifters...guys riding bikes like the one we ride basically

 

I remember when Marco died, a lot of people in Italy felt that he had been set up for that "accidental overdose". There were a lot of conspiracy theories

 

but that he died on Valentines Day made the Saint Pantani thing even stronger with his fans, and he had a lot of them. The story was so sad, and so tragic, that people were looking for a villian

[Former member]

I like watching the race footage from the 80s and 90s, too. No helmets, downtube shifters...guys riding bikes like the one we ride basically

"guys riding bikes like the ones we ride basically".

Huh?

[Randomguy]

Nice write up, I also want to go for a ride now.  I liked Pantani, he had flair.