Here is Santa Cristina again, where the Pantani myth was born twenty-eight years ago

June 5, 1994 Marco Pantani stopped Italy for the first time. It will happen other times but that remains in history. Because the Pirate, first fashion in a Carrera jersey with still a few hairs on his head and still without a bandana, that day also introduced the cycling people to the insidious climb of the Santa Cristina pass, 13 km of ascent up to 1,448 meters of altitude and 8% average gradient.

One day earlier in Merano he won the stage after a breakaway for the victory on the last ramps of the Giovo Pass, in the stage between Val Camonica and Valtellina, just like today or almost today, he made the pink jersey go crazy, the Russian Eugenio Berzinmeteor of cycling but that unbeatable year, and above all his majesty Miguel Induranwho in the last stretch of the final climb before the Aprica dive, after suffering the pains of hell on the Mortirolo but returning under the Pirata, gave way clearly beginning to understand that the pink trio in that 1994, after the 1992 brace -1993 would have been impossible.

He danced on Pantani pedals. He was 24 years old, in that stage – it was the era of the Giro broadcast on Mediaset with De Zan junior on the microphone (experience that woke up a little and modernized mother Rai after years of peaceful sleep without competition) – he made the Italians understand, glued to the TV , that besides Bugno and Chiappucci there could be something stronger, even emotionally speaking.

Marco snapped. On the Mortirolo. Then on to Santa Cristina. He thrilled. He finished second in that Giro, 2’51 “behind the Russian, that May 5 laid the foundations for a short, troubled, legendary career. Which will end in practice, think well, again on June 5th, but in 1999 with the crimes of Madonna di Campiglio.

The next day the riders were due to face Mortirolo and Santa Cristina, but he had been sent home for abnormal hematocrit values. Today? There will not be a Pantani, but a lot of ground to hurt the opponents, just like Ivan Basso did in the Liquigas jersey, supported by a young man Vincenzo Nibalitaking the 2010 Giro.

Five thousand meters in altitude, infinite initial climb with the Golletto del Cadino (over 30 km up to almost two thousand), the Mortirolo, the “softer” side of Monno but the last 3 km hard, the short but treacherous Teglio and, before the dive to Aprica, the Santa Cristina. The Pantani mountain is mandatory today.