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Home > The Death of Marco Pantani: A Biography
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The Death of Marco Pantani: A Biography
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By Matt Rendell
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 (8 Reviews)
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List Price: $12.95
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Publisher:
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Phoenix
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Date:
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September 1, 2007 |
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Binding:
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Paperback
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Pages:
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324
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| Product Description: |
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Cyclist Marco Pantani’s death is one of the most tragic events in recent sports history. After winning both the Tour de France and the Giro d’Italia in 1998, he was expected to dominate cycling well into the next decade. Instead, he was caught in a blood-doping scandal, disappeared from view, and, in 2004, was found dead of cocaine poisoning. Matt Rendell tells Pantani’s story with an investigative reporter’s zeal for the facts and a novelist’s skill for depicting deeper truths. He debunks the conspiracy theories that have circulated about Pantani’s demise, and also reveals other startling findings about the dark underside of the cycling world.
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Customers' Reviews:
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Self-Destruction, August 22, 2010
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More a book about self-destruction than a book about cycling, although if you aren't familiar with Pantani, you may not find yourself drawn into the story.
Marco Pantani was the best cyclist in the world in 1998, winning the Tour de France and the Tour of Italy. He was also one of the most exciting cyclists of recent generations, winning with spectacular, risky accelerations during the hardest mountain stages. His fame in Italy transcended cycling and sports.
He was busted for doping the following year while leading the Tour of Italy, and, if Rendell's investigations are valid, all of Pantani's professional achievements are tainted by consistent use of EPO to enhance the oxygen-carrying capacity of his blood.
Pantani did persist in his cycling career after the bust, famously winning a stage of the Tour de France on Mt. Ventoux against Lance Armstrong when the two reached the finish stretch alone, and Armstrong chose not to contest the finish. But Pantani was on the way down, professionally and personally, while Armstrong continued to ascend. He became a heavy coke user, binging repeatedly until finally barricading himself in a hotel room and coking himself to death.
It's a well-researched and well-told, unfortunately true, dark story of self-destruction. And you'll learn more than you ever wanted to know about blood testing.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful
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 Great book, June 17, 2010
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First third of the book is a bit slow but turns into a great read
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful
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Excellent., May 7, 2010
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"What no one has so far attempted is to examine the entirety of Marco's existence... to place the vital questions at its heart: what did Marco mean to Italy and the outside world, and what did his meaning to others ultimately mean to him? Did he, or did he not, abuse doping products? Was his suspension at Madonna di Campiglio, as he claimed, part of a plot? Was his death a private, individual tragedy, or one in which sport played the decisive role?"
Above is an excerpt from the Prologue, providing for the reader an idea of the intention of this biography. If you are interested only in having Marco's extraordinary expeditions in the mountains and the glory of his victories read back to you, then don't bother reading The Death Of Marco Pantani. This book explores much deeper into Marco's life as an athlete and as a man. Those who criticize this book for being too "scientific" or too "informative" are the people who are still hypnotized by Pantani's incredible moments on the bike, and who perhaps do not want to accept the truth about those very moments. Anyhow, the provided excerpt should be more than enough for you to decide whether or not to read this. It is a very good book.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful
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A tragic opera without the music, June 14, 2009
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I do bicycle time-trials myself, and so find almost anything written about cycling interesting. Pantani was a gifted, tragic figure, but it seemed that success in cycling was all he had to sustain his ego, and the sad consequences are an object lesson to any one of us whose reason for being is so dependent on contingent circumstances. If you like endurance sports, you'll like this book.
Dennis Fried Small Dog, Big Life: Memoirs of a Furry Genius
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful
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 Good date, laughable writing, September 4, 2008
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Ok, if you want the scoop - just the raw data/info on Pantani, this is a good book. He's got lots of data on blood values. And there's lots of data (no doubt pulled from the various police investigations) regarding the whens and wheres and whos of Pantani's last days. So if you just want info and don't care about how that info is written for you, then this book is for you. But ...
The writing is so bad it is laughable. It looks to me like a ton of good research and data was handed to a college student (at best). At times, the book seems like it's written in English, then translated poorly into Italian, and then translated poorly back into English. During the much of the beginning, Rendell tries to be very poetic in his description of racing and Pantani, but it is done in such a cheesy, over-the-top manner that I just wound up laughing through the parts that Rendell probably thought were just grand. He also just rambles through much of the book in a way that makes me think of him doing a book reading in a completely monotonous voice that never changes pitch, tone, or speed. He also makes lots of strange omissions and/or mistakes with numbers and times. Going through an analysis of Pantani's testing times, for instance, Rendell seems to totally screw up the math for how long it took Pantani to show up for his tests and how late he was. Then he'll throw out data regarding Pantani's testosterone level as 8.5, and state that it is "suspicious" and indicates doping, but fails to give us background on what a normal number would be or why 8.5 is suspicious.
In sum, read it if you love cycling and/or Pantani, but don't expect much from the writing.
1 of 3 people found the following review helpful
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