MONTPELLIER (France) – Only ten times in the very long history of the Tour has the race finished on the Mont Ventoux. And in the roll of honour of the mountain dear to Petrarch there is only one Italian name: that of Marco Pantani the Martha Cavalli won up there in 2022 in the Mont Ventoux Denivele Challenge).
It happened on July 13, 2000, twenty-five years ago, and it is one of those memories we hope to never part with. There was a wind that tore the banners, so much so that the arrival one was put away for fear that it would fly away.The press room was at the summit, in a tent, and not 17 kilometers away as it will be today. There was the unbeatable Armstrong who in 1999 had won the first Tour. There was also an irrational confidence, living somewhere in our chest, that the Pirate would return. And that day indeed, as God is true, Mark returned.
Let's close our eyes and review the flashes of the day. We start from Carpentras and Robin Williams is at the startThe great actor greets Ilario Biondi, recognizing the resemblance, and he whispers to him laughing that they could be brothersThen the race starts and Marco, who is running a massive 10'34" behind in the standings, drops back once again. However, this time, instead of sinking, he remains there with his effort.. The time to frame the escape and we see him appear in the frame behind the escape, where the mountain is exposed to the wind. At that point we are already on the summit, trying to follow the race from a screen mounted in the shelter of a vanSuddenly Armstrong moves from behind, having seen Ullrich drop away and takes advantage, arriving at double speed.
He takes it and goes to pull it off, but he doesn't pull it off. He tries again and it's not clear whether he doesn't land the blow or whether the other man, rather than letting him go, chose to die on the bike.And when it finally came to the sprint, Pantani won, and Armstrong declared he had gifted it to him. He didn't reveal what the investigations revealed about those days, which led to the cancellation of his results. Maybe it was better that Pantani won that day, otherwise the Ventoux would have had only nine winners out of ten summit finishes.
Cycling with Siboni
We were there, but he lived the race better than us Marcello Siboni, Pantani's historic domestique, who finished the stage that day 11'23" behind his captain. His training and cycling partner since the Carrera days had been deployed in that Tour because, in addition to strong men, he also needed people capable of supporting him. Campiglio Day it still had deep after-effectsThe awakening at the end of the Giro, when Marco paved Garzelli's way towards the pink jersey, had rekindled hopes, but nothing was as bright as before.
"The Ventoux stage," he recalls, "came after the rest day. We had left for the Tour with Marco at 75-80 percent of his fitness level. Then as the days went by we began to realize that things were getting better., but he could do nothing to avoid the defeat by Hautacam (the Romagnol lost 5'10” to Armstrong, ed.)».
«He began to look at it – continues Siboni – and think he was an alien. Plus, it had rained that day, so it had been a bit of a strange day, and by evening Marco was feeling demoralized. He knew he wasn't 100 percent fit, but he hoped his character would be enough to make up for the differences.
«He was just waiting to fight Armstrong – continues Siboni – who had won the Tour the year before without us being there to defend his 1998 victory. The American was the favorite, but when we left, the idea was to challenge him again.».
The Pirate's stubbornness
The stage features a series of short climbs as it approaches Mont Ventoux, in that maze of roads, canyons, and narrow streets of the Provençal countryside, so gentle and then suddenly rocky. No one tries to make any special selection, so except for the day's breakaway, the group arrives compactly in the Bedoin area.
"The group was quite large," Siboni admits, "and as usual, he was behind. It's always been his way of being, and besides, that day no one expected something good to happenBut you knew him too: he often said one thing and did another. So maybe he didn't say anything, but deep down he was hoping to do something.Only, given how he'd fared on the previous climbs, it was hard to believe. Instead, with the tenacity he's always had, he'd break away, recover, and then get back under. That stage was the maximum expression of Marco: that is, of someone who never gives up, even at the risk of arriving dead."
"Until at a certain point he went away, and after a while we saw the American go too. Maybe it's true that he let him win and Marco wasn't happy, because he wanted to drop him. But when the other one started saying that he had given him a gift, Marco got furious. Why do you say such things? Even if you do, keep them to yourself..."
Instinct versus calculation
In just under two hours we go from the joy of victory to annoyance at Armstrong's wordsMarco is happy, They are all happy for the return to victory after that cursed stage of Madonna di Campiglio which had marked the beginning of the endWhen they told him he shouldn't have won so much: I wonder if anyone ever told Pogacar that. Probably not.
«He was feeling bad about Armstrong's words – Siboni recalls – and his desire to beat him literally exploded. That's why he distanced himself in Courchevel, because of that nastiness that only he was capable of and that had grown inside him. In Courchevel, perhaps he wasn't the real Marco, but he wasn't one to be thrown away either. Two days later he tried to sweep everything off his feet with the Morzine breakaway, because suddenly we once again believed that we could attempt the impossible. That week we were all excited about his return to winning ways.
I have to admit that Marco never had much sympathy for Armstrong. It was obvious from the moment he passed that he was a bit of a show-off. Marco had won the Tour in 1998, but suddenly it was the other one who was becoming popular.. Apparently he didn't like him that much either. his way of running was so cold and calculated, while he was genuine and GaribaldianArmstrong moved as if he were the master, with a team that, like today, seemed to be made up of remote-controlled athletes."
Spaghetti with lobster
Armstrong's remarks fail to ruin the Mercatone Uno dinner of Novotel Avignon. A few days earlier, Giovanni Ciccola, the chef who works with Mercatone Uno on behalf of the Tour de France, took Pantani aside, asking him what he would like to eat. And when Marco replied "lobster," the other one, to tease him, promised it to him when he won..
That evening So, spaghetti with lobster land on the team's table.For those of us waiting outside the door, we get a forkful, as good as a glass of champagne, to toast to success.
That evening we thought again that everything was possible, while From up there, Mont Ventoux felt happy to have surrendered to an immense and bald champion like him. Those were years of dreams coming true and of champions with legs and unearthly grit. It took a lot of it to battle Armstrong, who, unpunished, continued to overeat throughout the race. Three days later, in a head-to-head that was anything but casual, Marco bent it by demonstrating that perhaps, without what happened in Madonna di Campiglio in 1999, the Armstrong era would never have begun.Perhaps a conspiracy, if there was one, served to pave the way for the American to whom the Tour paid tribute for seven years of honor, before canceling him without the slightest hint of self-criticism.
