Observer on Sunday

[the other Steve Dennis]

This Sunday's Observer sport magazine has a feature about Pantani.

[David Lombari]

If, like me, you forgot to buy it, I think this is the article that appeared in it.
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/osm/stor ... 02,00.html

[Will]

yeah, that's the one.

not a bad article (much better than the lazy hack work in the previous week's sunday times, which completely failed to recognise his achievements, or the extent to which external influences messed him up.)

paints a picture of him as quite a sad character.

i didn't realise he'd had cosmetic surgery on his nose and ears.

i don't know much about football, but it struck me that the comparison with gazza was a little pointless, as well as off the mark.

[David Lombari]

Yeah, good article, not the usual black and white stuff you get from english journalists. As it was written by Matt Rendall I wouldn't be surprised if it appears in Procycling as well. I don't really see a need to mention Gazza, apart from trying to give the football-saturated english readers some kind of comparison.

[Dan B]

Reading the papers, Ceefax, etc., you'd think there was one, maybe two sports when the 6 Nations is on. For football, saturation isn't the word.

I thought it was another great article by Rendall - I've liked his writing so far, how he can get under the skin of the rider. There was an excerpt, also in the OSM, of his new book about Lance's 2003 Tour last year that I thought highly of.

What was truly sad was the way the Italian press acted as a buffer, not writing about his self-destructive streak. The way one writer wanted to write a story, 'Silence is killing Pantani', but the editor vetoed it.

Looking forward to the Cycle Sport version of events, delayed no doubt by the weight of the free SIS bar.