Thursday 28 May, 6.30pm
The Italian Library #28
Il Dio delle salite: storia di Marco Pantani
Ornella Tarantola in conversation with Marco Pastonesi, author of Pantani era un dio
In Italian
Marco Pantani’s story is one of passion and compassion, of exaltation and downfall, of an Italian dream and a Romagnol tragedy, of bicycles and life but also of cycling and death. It is a story that begins in the Eighties, innocently, and explodes in the Nineties, spectacularly. It is a story of Giro d’Italia and Tour de France victories, of mountains and climbs, of attacks, accelerations, and gaps. And it is the story of a talented young man who, when the road tilted upward, made his lightness count—his inspiration, and even his longing for solitude.
“A man alone in the lead,” announced radio commentator Mario Ferretti, referring to Fausto Coppi. A man alone in the lead was also Marco Pantani, and with him all the Italians who, thanks to him, rediscovered the charm of fatigue, the seduction of suffering, the asceticism of climbers, of cycle‑mountaineers, of vertical specialists.
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Born in Genoa in 1954, Marco Pastonesi is a sports journalist—having spent 24 years at La Gazzetta dello Sport—and an author known especially for his work on cycling and rugby. He currently contributes to Rai Radio 3, Il Foglio, and Tuttobiciweb. His book Pantani era un dio (66thand2nd), reissued in a pocket edition by Neri Pozza, won the 2014 Gianni Brera Prize. His latest publications include Strade nere (Ediciclo) and Rugby Underground (Bottega Errante).