The Death of Marco Pantani: A Biography [Hardcover]

Matt Rendell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 28, 2006

Cyclist Marco Pantani’s death is one of the most tragic events in recent sports history. After winning both the Tour de France and the Giro d’Italia in 1998, he was expected to dominate cycling well into the next decade. Instead, he was caught in a blood-doping scandal, disappeared from view, and, in 2004, was found dead of cocaine poisoning. Matt Rendell tells Pantani’s story with an investigative reporter’s zeal for the facts and a novelist’s skill for depicting deeper truths. He debunks the conspiracy theories that have circulated about Pantani’s demise, but reveals other startling findings about the dark underside of the cycling world.

Editorial Reviews

Review

'Superficially [Pantani] appears to be a familiar type of sporting self-destructor. Like George Best, Diego Maradona, Alex "Hurricane" Higgins, and so on, he was prodigiously gifted; like them, he couldn't handle success and its aftermath. But, if Rendell is right (and the evidence does seem conclusive) unlike them, he was a pharmaceutical creation almost from the beginning. He was "cycling's greatest cheat"...It is the pursuit of this revelation that makes the...book so readable.' -- Bryan Appleyard NEW STATESMAN (3.7.06) 'an excellent book about the life and death of il Pirata, The Pirate, as Pantani was known. Rendell has interviewed dozens of those closest to Pantani to paint an intimate and sympathetic - if unsentimental - picture...this is also a work of meticulous investigative journalism that shatters whatever doubts anyone could still have about systematic doping in cycling.' -- Xan Rice OBSERVER SPORTS MONTHLY (2.7.06) '[a] sad, exhaustively detailed and beautiful book...This book, unflinching though it is, serves as a fitting, ambivalent tribute - to the man, and to the dark heart of the sport he loved.' -- Chris Maume INDEPENDENT (4.7.06) 'Matt Rendell must have been a forensic detective in a previous life, because while his research for the chapters up to mdc is particularly impressive, his account of the years of desperation leading to Marco's eventual death is breathtaking...Matt Rendell is to be congratulated on the tenacity of his investigations and for producing such a readable and absorbing account.' www.washingmachinepost.net 'There are three passages in this brilliant but nightmarishly bleak book where, caught up in the excitement of Pantani in his pomp, Matt Rendell switches to the present tense to describe his greatest victories. The writing here is breathless, awe-struck, more evocative and incisive than TV pictures or newspaper reports could ever be. But Rendell, although a fan, is meticulous and painstaking and he investigates the Shakespearean tragedy of Pantani's life as if it were a crime scene.' -- Angus Batey THE TIMES (22.7.06)

About the Author

MATT RENDELL survived Hodgkin's Disease and lecturing at British and Latvian universities before entering TV and print journalism. He is the author of A Significant Other (W&N, 2004), a top ten sports book and Kings of the Mountains (Aurum, 2002). His Channel 4 documentary on Colombian cycling was described in The Observer as 'a gem, telling us more about the essence of sport in under an hour than a season's worth of Premiership matches.' He has written for the BBC, ITV and Channel 4, including British coverage of the Tour de France. The National Sporting Club named Matt Rendell 'Best New Sports Writer 2003.'

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: WN (August 28, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0297850962
• ISBN-13: 978-0297850960
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.5 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,590,950 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars More about Doping and Science than his racing..., March 5, 2007

By 

MLM247 (Austin,Texas, USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Death of Marco Pantani: A Biography (Hardcover)

First off, this is a good book, but it depends what you want out of it. Maybe I just prefer the cycling writings of John Wilcockson. For me, I like something like "23 Days in July" about the ups and downs, real life of a bike racer so that I feel like I am living it. This is the 3rd of the 3 Pantani books I have read and what I can say about it is; if you want to dig very deep into whether or not the guy "doped" than this is for you. If you want a book that really celebrates the champion's accoplishments balanced with what brought him down, without a ton of science thrown in, then I would recommend "Marco Pantani: The Legend of a Tragic Champion" as the best of the 3 books out there. Rendell's book is tied for second with Ronchi's overall. Ronchi's book really sheds more light onto his personal life and is also worth the read.

All good books, but I am on my second read of "tragic champion" and it probably won't be my last.

Overall, I feel Rendell thought Pantini was guilty of cheating and he made a point of proving it, which he did. Problem is, it was proven in heavy detail and took up too much of the book.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Detailed and interesting, January 17, 2008

By 

Joe Benvegnu (Littleton, CO USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Death of Marco Pantani: A Biography (Paperback)

Rendell does a good job of chronicling the young Pantini and the promise he showed in his early races. He also details his family life and the seeds for his later emotional issues. Rendell works analytically and steps through the events related to Marco's medical evidence of doping, his mental and social issues, and his eventual death. I have read other reviews in which readers expressed disappointment that Pantani's pro racing victories are not highlighted more in the book. I think the title explains Rendell's focus and as long as the reader in interested in learning more about Pantani as a man in addition to a cycling champion, I think this is a very good read.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Way too detailed, January 16, 2007

By 

George Granlund "Adventure Book Lover" (Northern Michigan) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Death of Marco Pantani: A Biography (Hardcover)

I struggled through this chronicling of Pantani's storied career. The author detailed every one of Pantani's races while he was a teenager then barely mentioned his early Tours de France. If I could stand more Pantani trivia, I'd buy the other two biographies to compare them with this. A disappointment.