Sport's Strangest Crimes: Pantani: Death of a Pirate

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Sport's Strangest Crimes: Marco Pantani: Death of a Pirate: 1. The Cursed Champion

Marco Pantani: Death of a Pirate

1. The Cursed Champion

BBC Radio 5 Live - Sport's Strangest Crimes, Marco Pantani: Death of a Pirate, 1. The Cursed Champion

In 2004 the world mourns for Pantani. But in 1990 he’s just beginning to make his mark.

In 2004, the world mourns for Marco Pantani. But before the trophies and the triumphs - and the drugs and the disgrace - in 1990, Marco is just beginning to make his mark.

In February 2004, 20,000 mourners lined the streets to pay their respects at the funeral of superstar cyclist, Marco Pantani.

In November 2021, a new inquiry into Pantani’s death was announced - this time investigating the theory that the Italian mafia might have been involved in his murder.

But in episode one, it’s 1990, and promising amateur Marco Pantani is just beginning to make his mark… With the help of Marco’s biographer, Matt Rendell, we meet the man behind the legend.

New episodes released Thursday. If you’re in the UK, listen to the full series of Sport’s Strangest Crimes - first on BBC Sounds - bbc.in/3PbXQxv

Narrated by Hugh Dennis, with the voices of Iain Ferrier and Helen Roper

Sound design: Rich Evans
Additional production: Lorenzo Bodrero, Matt Kenyon and Ed Morrish

Writer and producer: Katie Sayer
Executive producer: Jon Holmes

Sport's Strangest Crimes: Marco Pantani: Death of a Pirate

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Cycling and organised crime collide when a champion cyclist is mysteriously found dead.

When Italy's greatest cyclist is mysteriously found dead, sensational claims of mafia involvement see the world of cycling collide with the murky underworld of organised crime.

When Italy's greatest cyclist is mysteriously found dead, sensational allegations of mafia involvement see the world of cycling collide, headfirst, with the murky underworld of organised crime.

Over the course of this podcast, we'll travel from the mountains of rural Italy, to the shady commercial underbelly of a sport on the rise, as - two decades on - the police, historians and our cycling-obsessed host Hugh Dennis try to answer once and for all what really happened to Marco Pantani.

With allegations of doping, race-fixing, gambling, and corruption, 90s cycling provides the backdrop for one of the most dramatic questions in sport - and criminal - history... would the mafia really kill a cyclist?

Welcome to Marco Pantani: Death of a Pirate.

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