Former TdF winner Marco Pantani, found dead in hotel
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TriBob
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 Posted: 02/16/04 - 10:56 Post subject: Former TdF winner Marco Pantani, found dead in hotel
Initial reports suggest Pantani died of heart attack
Friends describe extremely bitter and changed man
By VeloNews Interactive
http://www.velonews.com/news/fea/5565.0.html
Copyright AFP2004
This report filed February 16, 2004
Former Tour de France winner Marco Pantani, found dead in a hotel room in Italy over the weekend, believed he was being persecuted for his doping record, reports said Monday.
Pantani is thought to have died of a heart attack rather than suicide as first suspected, but notes found in the room clearly indicate that he was a very troubled man. An autopsy is due to be completed on Monday, with a coroner having indicated a "cardio-circulatory arrest," as the cause of the cyclist's death
"They only want to punish me," the 34-year-old was reported to have written on note paper found in his Rimini hotel room, La Repubblica newspaper reported on Monday.
He was also alleged to have written he was the victim of a conspiracy.
Officials found 10 packets of prescription sedatives in the room after his body was discovered on Saturday afternoon.
"I am excluding any idea of a suicide until such time as we have the full results of the autopsy," said local prosecutor Paolo Gengarelli.
Coroner Francesco Toni, who examined Pantani's body, believes the cyclist died of a heart attack, the cause of which is as yet unknown.
Gengarelli said he was awaiting the results of the autopsy to help him reconstruct the last hours before Pantani's death. Newspapers also reported Monday that Pantani was addicted to cocaine and had planned to go for treatment to a clinic in Bolivia.
"He wanted to get away from the glare of publicity," father Pierino Gelmini, who founded the clinic, told Corriere della Sera.
Police told a news conference on Sunday that the tranquilizers were prescription drugs, and that some of the packets were empty and some started. Gengarelli added that Pantani had effectively secluded himself in the room for five days and left it only for breakfast.
Last year, Pantani checked into a clinic that specialized in depression and drug addiction. A number of riders have spoken about how Pantani had been affected since his career was derailed by doping allegations in 1999.
Pantani's friend, 1986 world champion Moreno Argentin, told reporters that Pantani was an angry and troubled man in his final weeks.
"The last time I saw him, he was extremely bitter, a changed man," Argentin said.
Belgian cycling legend Eddy Merckx hit out at the Italian judicial system.
"After his success in the Giro d'Italia and Tour de France in the same year
Pantani certainly made mistakes - but he was targeted by an Italian justice
system that never let him go," Merckx said. "I believe it was that that destroyed him."
In October, an Italian court cleared Pantani of the charge of sporting fraud that dated back to an elevated hematocrit level found in blood samples from a 1995 accident and to the doping scandal that engulfed his ejection from the 1999 Giro d'Italia.
The flamboyant rider, who won both the Tour and Giro in 1998, made an emotional comeback to cycling last year after years of wrangling with the authorities over alleged drug-taking.
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crazyfrog
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Posted: 02/16/04 - 21:11 Post subject:
wow, i hadnt heard about that....
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TriBob
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Posted: 02/17/04 - 10:33 Post subject:
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