Giro d’Italia returns to Oropa 25 years after Marco Pantani’s feat

The Giro d'Italia returns to Oropa 25 years after Marco Pantani's feat

Twenty-five years ago, the Giro d’Italia was the scene of what was perhaps Marco Pantani’s most extraordinary feat, along with the previous year’s feat on the Galibier in the Tour de France. The pink race arrived at the Sanctuary of Oropa on May 30, 1999 after 160 km at the end of the 15th stage, which started from Racconigi. And there the Pirate, with the pink jersey on, wrote one of the pages that took him straight into the legend of the sport.

Pantani up to that moment, despite winning only one stage and taking the symbol of supremacy the day before in Borgo San Dalmazzo, despite having only a 53-second lead over Paolo Savoldelli had been the master of the race fully respecting his role as the big favorite given his successes in the Giro and Tour of the previous year. The race arrived in Biella, and just over 10 kilometers from the finish line the final climb to the Sanctuary would begin.

Everyone’s eyes were of course on Pantani, who was clearly the strongest of all on the climb, but with 8.5 km to go he’d already lost his chain, lost at least half a minute to put it back on, and remounted in the saddle. Forty-nine riders were ahead of him. His Mercatone Uno s teammates stopped to bring him back to the front of the race at an insane pace, then, having exhausted their task, it was up to him to catch up and overtake all his opponents.

The’last to give way was Frenchman Laurent Jalabert, pink jersey until two days earlier, who arrived 21 seconds off, Gilberto Simoni took 35, Ivan Gotti 38, Savoldelli 49. Pantani will also win the Pampeago and Madonna di Campiglio stages, but on the very morning of the start of the big stage from the Trentino resort of 3Tre to Aprica on June 5, he will be excluded from the race for having too high a hematocrit level and that Giro will be won by Gotti.

The first time the Gio d’Italia arrived in Oropa was in 1963 and Vito Taccone won. The pink race also è climbed to the Sanctuary in the Biella mountains in 1993 (victory by Massimo Ghirotto), 2007 (time trial won by Marzio Bruseghin), 2014 (Enrico Battaglin) and 2017 (To Dumoulin). This year therefore, a quarter of a century after that memorable feat of Pantani, it will be the seventh time that the pink race will return to Oropa.