Tragic Italian Tour de France winner Marco Pantani – who died of a drugs overdose in 2004 – ‘was actually KILLED in his hotel room’, claims the dealer who sold him his final hit
- Marco Pantani was found dead in a hotel room in 2004 at the age of 34
- The popular cyclist was ruled to have died following an overdose of cocaine
- But the dealer who sold him his final dose says he believes Pantani was killed
- His claims will be aired on a TV programme in Italy tonight
A documentary due to be broadcast in Italy on Tuesday night will throw into question the manner of the death of popular cyclist Marco Pantani.
Pantani, winner of the 1998 Tour de France, died at the age of 34 after being found barricaded in his hotel room in 2004.
It was ruled that he had overdosed on cocaine but the drug dealer who sold Pantani his last dose, Fabio Miradossa, will break his silence in Tuesday’s programme and outline his belief that the cyclist was killed.
The manner of Marco Pantani’s death is to be called into question in an Italian documentary
Fabio Miradossa, who sold Pantana cocaine, has outlined his belief that the cyclist was killed
‘Marco didn’t die from cocaine. Marco was killed,’ Miradossa says in the La Lene programme, via mediaset. ‘Maybe those who killed him didn’t want to do it, but he was killed. I do not know why at that time judges and police did not go to the bottom.
‘They said that Marco was in the throes of delirium for narcotics, but I am convinced that… Marco was killed.’
Pantani’s mother, Tonina, has previously said that she thinks her son was killed.
She called for the investigation into his death to resume earlier this year, on the anniversary of his death.
The Italian cyclist Pantani won the Tour de France and the Giro d’Italia in 1998
Pantani pictured being crowned as the Tour de France winner in August 1998
The cyclist pictured riding in one of his last races in May 2003 before his death
‘There was someone else in the room. He was forced to swallow cocaine. From who? Why,” she said to La Gazzetta dello Sport.
‘The investigation should be reopened. I feel they killed him.’
Pantani also won the Giro d’Italia in 1998 but in 1999, was disqualified from the event after giving a haematocrit reading (the level of red blood cells to the volume of blood) of 52, two points over the UCI’s (cycling’s governing body) maximum level of 50.
He has also been connected with investigations into EPO use in the years after his death.
A French senate report in 2013 said that Pantani’s samples from his 1998 Tour de France victory were retested in 2004 and came back positive.
‘My son was never found doped, but now I understand how it worked,’ Pantani’s mother said. ‘If he hadn’t done it, he would have been the village fool.’
Friends hold up the yellow jersey Pantani won at his funeral in February 2004
Thousands lined the streets in Cesenatico as Pantani’s coffin was carried out of the church
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