|
|
|
|
|
|
 
|
  'Marc de Triomphe' Italy celebrates conquering hero
Posted: Wednesday September 02, 1998 09:16 PM
ROME (CNN/SI) -- All of Italy welcomed home it conquering hero Monday, as Marco Pantani gave Italy its first Tour de France winner since 1965. With the country still reeling from its dismal showing in the World Cup, it seemed only appropriate that Pantani restore Italy's fighting sporting spirit along the Champs Elysees on Sunday. Italy had produced five winners of the premier cycling race in the world, however, since Felice Gimondi denied French hero Jacques Anquetil what would have been a fifth consecutive tour victory it took 33 years and a man named Pantani to bring the title back to Italy. More painfully, they had not won the world's greatest cycle race since 1965, when. "Marc de Triomphe" proclaimed the headline in the best selling sports daily Gazzetta dello Sport, which dedicated its front page to a huge colour photograph of a smiling Pantani, his arm held aloft by Gimondi on the Paris podium. On the inside pages Gimondi passed on his mantle as the tour's most recent Italian winner with a little sadness. "This rite of passage between myself and Marco is an important moment," the 55-year-old wrote. "Marco is a worthy successor. I am handing him a crown which, among Italians, I have worn for 33 years. "Dear Marco, now that you are taking it from me I realise how fond I've grown of it. But you have deserved you're victory and I too applaud you." Italy's other sports newspapers responded to Pantani's victory as if he had ridden the three-week race for them alone. "Thank you Pantani!" was the headline in the Turin paper Tuttosport while Corierre dello Sport led with a huge and simple "Thank you" above a picture of their bearded, bald-headed hero. Daily La Repubblica hailed Pantani's victory as a triumph for the swashbuckling "old school" of cycling, where riders are prepared to go it alone in the mountains rather than gain bonus points and valuable seconds in the sprints and time trials. The paper placed Pantani up there with the nations other sporting heroes -- dating from boxer Nino Benvenuti in the 1960s to sprinter Pietro Mennea in the 1970s to World Cup striker Paolo Rossi in 1982 to alpine skier Alberto Tomba in the early 1990s. The 28-year-old from Cesenatica on Italy's Adriatic coast was congratulated by President Oscar Luigi Scalfaro on Sunday night for his historic win. One politician called for Pantani to be given Italy's highest honour as "cavaliere" of the republic, similar to France's Legion d'Honneur.
Reuters contributed to this report. | |||||||||||||||||||||
