Inquiry reopened into cyclist’s death after murder claim

Italian prosecutors have reopened an investigation into the death of cyclist Marco Pantani after his family presented evidence contending the former Tour de France winner was murdered.

Pantani, who won both the Giro d’Italia and Tour de France in 1998, was found dead in a Rimini hotel room on February 14, 2004. A coroner ruled the 34-year-old died from a cocaine overdose.

The Italian cyclist’s mother, Tonina Pantani, has always claimed her son was murdered, alleging that he was forced to drink a lethal dose of cocaine dissolved in liquid.

“It’s an important day, but with a bittersweet taste. On one side I’m glad, after many years, finally I’m not shouting into the wind anymore. But inside me there’s also anger, anger and more anger.

“Why did it take all this time?”

Rimini’s chief prosecutor, Paolo Giovagnoli, confirmed Pantani’s file has been reopened but said it is an “obligatory move” in such matters. His colleague, Elisa Milocco, will study the dossier.

In 2005, a criminal court found three men guilty of supplying the cocaine which killed Pantani.

Two of them confessed and plea-bargained for lighter sentences, while the third was cleared on appeal in 2011.

Pantani’s family hired a private investigator, Francesco Maria Avato, who gathered evidence to support the theory that the rider opened his hotel room door to people he knew and then fought with them. Assailants then forced him to consume the cocaine that was dissolved in water, moved the body and deliberately put the room in disarray to make it look as though his death had been an accident, according to this theory.

No forensic analysis was carried out on a water bottle in the room, nor were any fingerprints taken, while the marks on Pantani were allegedly more consistent with a brawl than with falling down in a drugged state, he said.