“Be careful, Pantani punctured. In fact, maybe it’s not a puncture, but a chain jump”. The voices of Adriano De Zan and Davide Cassani, Rai commentators in 1999, echo throughout the history of cycling.
Marco Pantani he is in the Pink Jersey, he regained it the previous day at the finish line in Borgo San Dalmazzo thanks to the difficulties of Laurent Jalabert, and now leads in the general classification with 53″ on Paolo Savoldelli and 1’21” on Ivan Gotti. The Racconigi-Santuario di Oropa is therefore a delicate passage to understand if there is anyone capable of countering the “Pirate”, even if the final climb is not particularly difficult, since it measures 11.7 km and has an average gradient by 6.2%. The race, however, suddenly heats up on the first slopes of the ascent towards Oropa: the Maglia Rosa has a mechanical problem! Pantani gets off his bike, it’s a chain jump, but with the help of the Shimano spare bike he manages to restart quickly, he only lost 45” from the group.
Up front, however, they realize that Pantani isn’t there, they have to take advantage of it, they start to sprint and the group quickly crumbles. The Mercatone Uno blockade awaits Captain Pantani, who remains lucid and even hungrier, he lets his teammates squeeze for him as long as possible and then, when even his last standard-bearer, Marco Velo, has run out of energy, he launches in pursuit of rivals. Within about 6 kilometers he recovers and overtakes 49 runners, leaves Gotti, leaves Savoldelli, leaves Simoni and gets back to Jalabert, alone in the lead. Three kilometers from the finish he also gets rid of the Frenchman and takes off towards the finish. He wins, in the Pink Jersey, but he doesn’t rejoice: “I didn’t think I had them all…”.
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