I have never seen Marco Pantani run. I have no memories even relating to what happened that Valentine's night 20 years ago, about which a lot has been written, but nothing has ever been clarified.

I started following cycling late, at 14-15 years old; a sport, compared to others, much more complicated to understand and appreciate. However, when you begin to understand the tactics and strategies and, above all, to understand how much effort and suffering the athletes experience, it is difficult not to fall in love with it. This is exactly what happened to me, in particular thanks to the connection that this sport has with the mountains: it is on the hairpin bends of the great climbs that the most romantic and legendary pages of cycling are written.

As soon as I approached this world I heard many anecdotes about Marco: commentators, journalists and fans of all kinds remembered with melancholy that little athlete from Romagna who had left an indelible memory in the hearts of any fan. Initially, I didn't understand the reason for all this praise; sure, Pantani had won a Giro and a Tour in the same year (the last to do so), but his prestigious successes stop there and his career, in terms of palmares, was comparable to that of other forgotten riders.

Slowly, however, by reading books and watching videos of his exploits, I began to understand the reasons for such affection: that boy, fragile in appearance and also in his soul, had the gift of making anyone emotional by simply standing up on the pedals of his bicycle. And people, especially in sport, even before victories, remember the emotions that an athlete manages to convey.

When I cycled to Carpegna, his climb, in the summer of 2021, I totally understood who Marco was and what he had been for cycling: writings, monuments, photographs... an entire mountain dedicated to a single man, a place in where you can feel the authentic passion for sport and hard work. Homage to the pirate are scattered everywhere in Italy, one in particular has always struck me: a writing, on a hairpin bend of the Onno climb, one of the busiest in the Lariano Triangle, which reads "Pantani still lives", painted in yellow , like the shirt he won in Les Deux Alpes, in that magical summer of '98.

Pantani still lives, not only in the hearts of those who saw him fly, triumph and then fall, but also in those who only heard about him and fell in love with him anyway. This is precisely his greatness: being able to be remembered and loved even by those who have never seen him live.

Hi Marco, thank you for everything you have given to this wonderful sport. 20 years later you are still alive.

A fan of yours who has never seen you race.