Pantani: The Accidental Death of a Cyclist

"Pantani: The Accidental Death of a Cyclist" is a documentary with two sides: it captures both the beauty of cycling as well as it tells the tragic story of Marco Pantani.

Marco Pantani should be placed in a long tradition of mythical climbers in cycling's history (Charly Gaul, Federico Bahamontes, Lucien Van Impe, Lucho Herrera, to name a few). These type of riders attack whenever the road goes up, trying to drop their opponents with many accelerations. By doing so, they become among the most popular in the world of cycling.

Most of the time, these cyclists don't win Grand Tours like the Tour de France and the Giro d'Italia, because for winning you need to be both a great climber as well as a decent time trialist (which is not their specialty). However, once in a while one of these iconic, lightweight climbers can outperform their counterparts and win the biggest races on the planet.

In my opinion, the director captures the beauty of the climber and cycling by telling the story of Marco ("The Pirate") Pantani (winner of both the Tour de France and the Giro d'Italia in 1998). Footage of the cyclist Pantani is shown, from images of youth races to his famous acceleration in the mountains (with his victory on the stage to Les Deux Alpes in the Tour de France of 1998 as my personal favorite). At the same time, the sounds of cycling (the pedals, the wind, the wheels on the asphalt) are being heard, interrupted once in a while by (former) cyclists and journalists speaking in admiration about Pantani.

The basics of cycling are also set out for people unfamiliar with the sport, without it being a pain in the ass for a cycling fanatic.

Simultaneously, the documentary tells and tries to explain the story of Pantani's life and its tragic ending. Family and friends are telling their sides of the story and the dark side of the EPO-era in cycling (1990s-2000s) is explored. By doing so, the director gives in my opinion a well-balanced answer on the unanswerable question: where did it go wrong with Marco Pantani?

Pantani: The Accidental Death of a Cyclist tells the rise and fall story of one of the most celebrated cyclists of recent years. In 1998, Marco Pantani won the Giro d'Italia and Tour de France. An achievement that has never been repeated since on account of the extreme endurance levels required to win both races. Unfortunately, doping allegations effectively ended his career and he went into a downward spiral ending in a cocaine related death in 2004.

Director James Erskine is no stranger to the sports documentary. Just last year I was fortunate enough to attend the premiere of Battle of the Sexes, his film about Billie Jean King's match with the chauvinistic Bobby Riggs. It was an excellent film, with drama, history and heart. It remains frustratingly little seen which is unbelievable. With 'Pantani' Erskine returns to similar territory but with less impressive results. The story certainly has potential but it's not always told in the most interesting manner. Pantani himself is shown to be an incredible athlete who had an extraordinary ability to climb and descend high gradients but he is never really someone who we ever truly connect with in this documentary. We don't get to learn much of his character; consequently his tragedy has less impact than it should. While the film does take quite a hazy view of the doping allegations that ultimately undid him which makes things unnecessarily unclear. His death also is only briefly covered. These negative story elements are crucial to the narrative and it would have been better if they had been covered more in depth, directly and objectively.

These considerations aside, this is still a well-made documentary. It takes the talking heads format but also has a lot of material from the time, with some good cycling footage. I personally had not even heard of Marco Pantani before seeing this and I only knew very general things about cycling as a sport. It was very educational on these fronts. One of the points it also makes is that professional athletes at the top of their sports are often merely just pawns in a big money machine; once they fall from their perch they can be disregarded because they are no longer of use to the business. Pantani seemed to be an example of this and it was directly responsible to his untimely death. It's a sad story for sure.

If you're a cycling fan you'll love this documentary, maybe not a 10 star, but gave it that to get the rating up. People don't realise how hard this sport is physically, then throw in all the other stuff they have to deal with. This man was unreal, I've never seen anybody climb like him, it was magical. Such a sad loss.

Pantani: Accidental Death of a Cyclist.

Read the book, whether you see the film or not. The book,obviously, goes into so much more detail than a film ever can.

It is definitely worth watching the film and reading the book as the film depicts the racing scenes much better than a book ever can, but...

the book goes into so much more detail on the sad life that enveloped Marco Pantani after the success of his Tour De France and Giro D'Italia successes in 1998.

I had tears in my eyes at the end of the book as it conveyed his downfall so much better than the film could possibly manage. This is one of those times when you have to delve deeper and read the full story. And even someone who is as anti-doping as me felt so strongly on the impact it had on a man who died too young.

And yes, I don't believe it was suicide.

Such a sad story about a man with a remarkable ability to climb the mountains faster than I can go down hill. I don't know if anyone will ever ascend like Pantani did. But then come crashing down so quickly.