Remembering El Pirata

Valentine’s Day is the love month but cycling remembers differently. Six years ago, the great Italian climber and the 1998 Tour de France winner Marco Pantani was found dead alone in a hotel room, OD’d on drugs.

I consider Marco Pantani as one of the three most colorful cycling personalities in his era. Mario Cippolini was literally colorful- sartorial and audio bite-wise and extremely fast on his bicycle. Lance Armstrong was simply colorful for he was a cycling god.

Pantani was unpredictable and coupled with his exceptional climbing skills, had a combustible personality. Like most elite athletes, had an ego as big as his talent. When Armstrong called him “elefantino” for his large ears, he had it cropped. When he was given the nickname, “El Pirata” by the media, he started wearing bandana and earrings. And he always referred to himself in the third person.

His racing tactics mirrored his tragic and unpredictable personality. He would attack when nobody thought he would. He quarreled with cycling and doping authorities, after he tested positive for performance enhancing drugs. And when his great talent started to betray him, he turned to the easiest of company, drugs.

It will be a long time since cycling will see a personality and talent like Marco. Too bad we lost him the way we did.

Here We Go Again

According to the Philippine Star, “powerhouse” teams from Europe have allegedly written the organizers of “Le Tour de Filipinas” about their enthusiasm to join the race this April.

When you say cycling “powerhouse” it should mean RADIO SHACK, SAXO BANK, ASTANA or SKY not Bordeaux (France), CTK (Switzerland), Power Move (Switzerland) and AC Sparta Pharma (Czeck Republic), Vali Asr Kerman (Iran), Shimano (Japan), Giant Asia Racing Team (Chinese Taipei), OCBC (Singapore) and Collosi (Hongkong).

For so many years now, race organizers have been saying that foreign teams will be joining their multi-stage race but when the big day comes, the only thing foreign is the absence of the foreign teams. Make no mistake about it, I would love to see foreign teams do their thing here against our local boys, even though I know that it would be a reverse “David vs. Goliath” battle. Talking is one thing, walking the talk is another thing.

Maybe multi-stage race organizers should look at the Tour de Langkawi which started out as a regional race a decade ago and is now one of the most sought after early season race by the Euro pros. Or if they have the hard cash, they can ask ASO, the TdF organizers to organize a race like what the Tour of Qatar does. If it’s organized by the ASO, you don’t need to arm twist the real powerhouses since they don’t want to get their invitation rescinded too the Tour de France, like theoretically getting left off for “ethical grounds”. 

Local vs. Pro Tour Riders

Last year, Frank Gatdula (aka Tour ni Frank) invited Lloyd Reynante, currently one of the better professional cyclists in the country today, to race in the US. Frank told me that Lloyd could podium easily in CAT 1 (the highest amateur category in the US) races but when thrown into the pack of Pro Tour riders, he couldn’t even finish the race. Remember, the US professionals are just kids in the European peloton’s sandlot so you can make your own conclusions.

Finally, wear your helmet always. It could save you from serious injury……I wonder who tied all those orange ribbons along P. del Rosario St. I hope they know how to untie it……thanks to blueshirts, the traffic lights along P. del Rosario are back……I’d like to say “hi!” to my classmate, Ms. Miriam Estrera, a nurse working in New York… - THE FREEMAN