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Marco Pantani's Mont Ventoux-winning Tour de France bike up for auction

Bianchi bike is expected to fetch between €25,000 and €30,000

A bike ridden to a Tour de France stage victory by Marco Pantani on Mont Ventoux in 2000 is one of the star attractions in an auction of sporting memorabilia in Milan next month.

The rider nicknamed il Pirata – the Pirate – who died in 2004 won the final two Grand Tour stages of his career on the bike at that year's Tour.

The Bolaffi auction house’s sale on 9 December will also feature the bike that Pantani rode in the road race at the Sydney Olympics that year (pictured below), as well as other items linked to him.

Marco Pantani Olympics 2000 bike .PNG

When he won the Tour de France in 1998 – in the process, becoming the last rider to win that race and the Giro d’Italia in the same year – Pantani’s Bianchi bike had a celeste and yellow colour scheme.

In 2000, however, with his team switching to predominantly pink jerseys to avoid clashing with the yellow jersey sported by the race leader, the bike was painted mainly black with pink accents.

Besides that Mont Ventoux stage – where he beat Lance Armstrong, winner of the overall but later stripped of that and six other victories in the race, to the stage win – Pantani also won a stage from Briancon to Courchevel in the 2000 Tour.

The bikes have been part of the collection of the museum of Mercatone Uno, the Italian furniture and electricals retailer, which is now bankrupt.

The Mont Ventoux stage-winning bike is expected to fetch between €25,000 and €30,000. The full spec appears below, and you can view the full auction catalogue here.

Bianchi race XL EV2 Reparto Corse

Marco Pantani TdF 2000 bike 2.PNG

Tubing: Columbus Starship, frame number L922
Frame-fork: Bianchi XL EV2 Reparto Corse TDF 2000 paint
Bianchi full carbon XL Crankset
Campagnolo Record 10 speed (170mm 53/39)
Rear Derailleur: Campagnolo Record 10 speed
Front Derailleur: Campagnolo Record 10 speed
Brake Levers/Shifters: Campagnolo Record 10 speed
Brakes: Campagnolo Record
Wheelset: Campagnolo Nucleon
Pedals: Time Equipe Mag Stelo
Stem: ITM Millennium 120mm
Handlebar: ITM Millennium Ergal 7075, 41cm
Seatpost: Campagnolo Record Titanium (27.2mm)
Saddle: Selle Italia Flite ‘Il Pirata’
Tyres: Continental
Bottle cage: Titanium
Handlebar tape: Bianchi cork (original)

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

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14 comments

Avatar
pwake | 3 years ago
0 likes

These seem like a positive bargain when compared with the 116 limited edition Colnago V3RS that they are selling for $30k because they are painted yellow.

Avatar
curdins | 3 years ago
3 likes

For those that are nerds like me, and that expect a cycling website obsessed with kit and gear to be expert in this, regardless of this being 20 years ago and of any Q's re: bike authenticity and auction site brochure accuracy, it seems that in this case road.cc didn't check what they copied and pasted from the brochure text, nor employed the investigative skills to add a bit of welcome detail to the text they have repurposed:

road.cc wrote:
* Bianchi full carbon XL Crankset - when it's so very obvious it's a Campag Record alloy one;
* Pedals: Time Equipe Mag Stelo - never heard of the Stelo model; see below:
* Bottle cage: Titanium - really? Looks like a standard Elite Patao to me, which Pantani didn't even use on this stage.

If you look in the brochure, the above is listed as:
* Cambio/Crankset: Campagnolo Record 10s (170mm 53/39): clearly correct! Why did road.cc change this to something so obviously incorrect?
* Pedali/Pedals: Time Equipe Mag ... and next item:
* Stelo/Stem: ITM Millenium 120mm - ah: a dreaded copy and paste error! Slack editing! No proofreading!

The auction site also lists the bottle cage simply as 'titanium', and as a simple auction site they kinda have an excuse; road.cc should know that the one attached to this bike is not titanium, but an Elite Patao from the period, in magnesium. Actually I'm sure Elite didn't even make a titanium version of the Patao, but with a bit of simple picture research, it looks like Pantani did indeed use a titanium cage for this stage, not the non-existent Ti Patao version, but rather the Elite Titanium Flake. Might not have used it for the whole 2000 Tour, but on the Ventoux stage, he certainly did!

I wear my anorak with pride.

Avatar
Chris Hayes replied to curdins | 3 years ago
1 like

I half typed a similar email and then deleted it as I didn't want to be labelled a pedant...but I wholeheartedly agree with you.  

.... There was a carbon crank record chainset...but it came out later and this is certainly an alloy one...

 

Avatar
curdins replied to Chris Hayes | 3 years ago
0 likes

Yeah, I had the first-gen carbon-fibre wrapped Record chainset (£550!) with the duraluminium exoskeleton and woven carbon finish (as opposed to the later version's cheap unidirection 'chop' structure), reportedly made by Zipp IIRC; clearly this is a standard Record alloy version, as listed in the auction brochure. How road.cc / Simon managed to fail with a simple cut-and-paste for the pedals and stem, yet seemingly rewrite the text for the chainset from scratch, and get it wrong, is totally beyond me. A lack of precision, of care, of knowledge? I want a pedantic anorak writing stuff like this - it's not an insult! - and for the writer to read through and preferably someone else to proofread it for accuracy before it's published.

Avatar
Chris Hayes | 3 years ago
3 likes

Interestingly, there's no difference whatsoever between this bike and one you could readily buy for reasonable money from any decent bike shop at the time: steel frame - 10 speed groupset (albeit Record).  Compare this with today's bifurcated market with tour pros riding GBP10k+ machines with mortals buying (in my case) cheaper versions.

Avatar
aegisdesign replied to Chris Hayes | 3 years ago
0 likes

Minor point but "Columbus Starship" is really thin walled aluminium tubing. Perhaps even too thin though I'd guess a buyer of Pantani's bikes isn't going to ride them.

Avatar
eburtthebike | 3 years ago
2 likes

Complete with a syringe of EPO?

Avatar
Blackthorne replied to eburtthebike | 3 years ago
1 like

You're so funny. While you lie awake at night in giddy anticipation of crowd sourced affirmation of your elite sense of humour so you can now feel clever, it strikes me that 30k is a bargain price for such a poignant piece of cycling history. If I had that money to throw around I would purchase it and give it to some local museum in an instant.  A man whose life was consumed by the quest to prove himself to others, and in the end of the day consumed him. His vice, this was his device.  Rip pantani. 

Avatar
Welsh boy replied to Blackthorne | 3 years ago
3 likes

Blackthorne wrote:

A man whose life was consumed by the quest to CHEAT TO prove himself to others, and in the end of the day consumed him.

There, fixed that typo for you.  Not saying that he was the only one of that era to do the same.

Avatar
Huw Watkins replied to Welsh boy | 3 years ago
0 likes

Oh, bravo.  Well done you.  Thank you for your selfless act.

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eburtthebike replied to Huw Watkins | 3 years ago
0 likes

I wonder how much one of Armstrong's winning bikes is worth?

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TheBillder replied to eburtthebike | 3 years ago
2 likes

And if Pantani had not been caught, would he still be alive and facing some of the same opprobrium as Armstrong?

The story is tragic and tells of a toxic industry as well as a life cut short. But none of that makes him a saint, just as Tom Simpson is not a saint either. I must say I find the Pantani cult repugnant.

Avatar
lushmiester replied to Welsh boy | 3 years ago
0 likes

Yes it was a dark period in cyclings history and yes it should not be celibrated. But if we are not to return to such times it should be remembered and it should not be forgotten, winning regardless of means and cost is not exceptable. It consumed Pantani and many others, fortunately most servived. The bike stands as a sad reminder of something a sport tolerated for too long and a life destroyed by it.

Avatar
eburtthebike replied to Blackthorne | 3 years ago
0 likes

Blackthorne wrote:

You're so funny.

Thanks.

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