1992–1996: Early years His success at the Girobio led to his turning professional for the remainder of the 1992 season with
Davide Boifava's . While signing the contract, barely above the minimum established, he asked Boifava what would happen if he were to win the
Giro d'Italia or the
Tour de France, requesting a change in the contract. He finished 12th in his first professional race, the
Gran Premio Città di Camaiore. In 1993, his first full season as a professional, he finished fifth at the mountainous course of
Giro del Trentino and debuted at the
Giro d'Italia in order to help his team leader,
Claudio Chiappucci. He was forced to abandon the race in the 18th stage due to
tendinitis. In 1994, he finished fourth at the
Giro del Trentino and the
Giro di Toscana before his second participation at the
Giro d'Italia, where he was supposed to help Chiappucci. injuries that threatened his career and forced him to miss most of the 1996 season.
1997: Move to Mercatone Uno When Carrera Jeans manufacturers stopped sponsoring the Italian cycling team at the end of 1996, a new team based in Italy was formed with Marco Pantani as the team leader.
Luciano Pezzi founded , taking with him as
directeur sportifs
Giuseppe Martinelli,
Davide Cassani and Alessandro Giannelli and ten of the riders from Carrera. Pantani returned to the Giro in 1997, but he was injured when a black cat caused an accident in front of him during one of the first stages. Even though he completed the stage, he was treated at a hospital for a muscle injury in the same leg he had hurt in 1995. He returned to action at the
1997 Tour de France and won two stages in the
Alps, establishing a record time for the climb of
Alpe d'Huez and winning two days later at
Morzine. Jan Ullrich won, with Pantani third behind
Richard Virenque. In 1997, Pantani rode the final 14.5 km to L`Alpe d`Huez in 37'35" minutes, which is the record to this day based on 14.5 km. Since the actual climb is just 13.8 km long, Pantani's time in 1997 was 36'55" minutes based on 13.8 km. His personal record for 13.8 km was in 1995, when he rode the climb in 36'50" minutes, which remains the fastest ascent time to this day. He also holds the second and third fastest time at 36'55" in 1997 and 37'15" in 1994, followed by
Lance Armstrong at 37'36" in 2004 and
Jan Ullrich at 37'41" in 1997.
1998: Giro and Tour wins In 1998, Pantani was considered a favorite to win the
Giro d'Italia. Other contenders included
Alex Zülle,
1996 winner
Pavel Tonkov and
1997 winner
Ivan Gotti. Zülle won the initial
prologue in Nice and also won the sixth stage to
Lago Laceno, but Pantani recovered some time in the mountain stage to
Piancavallo. Pantani lost further time to his main rivals during the fifteenth stage, an individual time trial in
Trieste. By that point, Pantani faced a disadvantage of almost four minutes to Zülle before the
Dolomites mountain stages and an individual time trial on the penultimate stage, a discipline that favored Zülle and Tonkov. In the seventeenth stage to
Selva di Val Gardena, Pantani took the
maglia rosa, the leader's jersey, for the first time in his career after attacking Zülle on the
Marmolada climb. Although Pantani crossed the finish line behind
Giuseppe Guerini, he finished over four minutes ahead of Zülle, maintaining an advantage of thirty seconds on the general classification over Tonkov, thirty-one seconds on Guerini and over a minute on Zülle. In the following stage to
Alpe di Pampeago, he finished second behind Tonkov but maintained the general classification lead over him and gained further time on Zülle and Guerini. In the eighteenth stage to
Plan di Montecampione, he repeatedly attacked Tonkov, dropping him in the last three kilometers and winning the stage to face the individual time trial on the penultimate stage with a lead of almost a minute and a half. Having won over two minutes on Pantani in the previous time trial, Tonkov was considered superior to Pantani on the time trial discipline, but the Italian finished third in the penultimate stage, gaining an additional five seconds on Tonkov. Pantani was thus able to maintain his lead to win the Giro d'Italia with a minute and a half over Tonkov and more than six minutes over Guerini. He also won the
Mountains classification and finished second in the
Points classification. In the
Tour de France, Pantani started the race by finishing 181st of 189 riders in the opening prologue, and losing over four minutes in the first
individual time trial to
1997 Tour de France winner
Jan Ullrich. Pantani pulled back these early time losses to Ullrich, first in the
Pyrenees by taking 23 seconds off Ullrich in the stage to
Luchon and winning the stage to
Plateau de Beille, where he took an additional minute and forty seconds from Ullrich. Although he was still three minutes behind Ullrich after the Pyrenees, he defeated him by almost nine minutes in the first mountain stage in the
Alps, from
Grenoble to
Les Deux Alpes, via the
Col de la Croix de Fer and
Col du Galibier. Pantani launched an attack on the ascent of Galibier, forty-eight kilometers from the finish. He stopped to put on a rain jacket at the summit to win on the final ascent to Deux Alpes. Pantani turned his three-minute deficit on Ullrich into a six-minute advantage that he maintained in the following stages to win the Tour de France ahead of
Jan Ullrich and
Bobby Julich. Pantani became the first Italian since
Felice Gimondi in 1965 to win the Tour and the seventh rider in history to achieve the
Giro-Tour double, a feat which no one had achieved since
Miguel Induráin succeeded in 1993. Until
Tadej Pogacar in 2024, Pantani was the last person to win the
Giro-Tour double in the same year. Following his success in the Tour, he stated that he may have won the cleanest Tour because of the fear of police following the
Festina affair. Although he had just ended what would be his most successful season and he had always dreamed about winning the
yellow jersey, he later stated that he felt more alone than ever. At the time of his disqualification, Pantani had won four stages and held a comfortable lead of five minutes and thirty-eight seconds over
Paolo Savoldelli and also led in the points and mountains classifications. As a result, the entire team withdrew from the race. Pantani stayed away from the rest of the year's races.
2000–2003: Late years at the
2000 Tour de France In 2000, he was back in the Giro after deciding to ride only the day before the race started. He lost time and could not attack until the last mountain stage to
Briançon, in which he helped his teammate
Stefano Garzelli to win. Pantani rode the
2000 Tour de France. He was off the pace in the
Pyrenees, but matched
Lance Armstrong on
Mont Ventoux, leaving the field behind. Armstrong eased and appeared to allow Pantani the stage victory. Pantani said that he felt insulted by the gesture, causing bad feelings between the two which were exacerbated when Armstrong referred to him as
Elefantino (Italian for "Little Elephant"), a reference to his prominent ears. In that same Tour, he won another stage, to
Courchevel, that turned out to be his last victory as a professional. At that point, he was sixth in the overall classification, facing a disadvantage of nine minutes to Armstrong. On the next stage, which featured the
hors catégorie Col de Joux-Plane to
Morzine, Pantani broke away with 120 km to go, trying to crush Armstrong, but he suffered stomach problems and withdrew the next day. He never raced the Tour again. Later in the year, he represented Italy in the
Sydney Olympics Road Race, finishing 69th. After that, he raced sporadically in 2001 and 2002, although he was demoralised from doping suspicions and had poor results. During the
2001 Giro d'Italia,
Italian police raided the rooms of riders from all 20 teams and a syringe containing traces of
insulin was found in Pantani's room. He was banned for eight months by the
Italian Cycling Federation but later won an appeal due to an absence of proof. In 2003, Pantani made another comeback in the
Giro d'Italia, finishing 14th overall. His best stage result was a fifth position after launching an unsuccessful attack on the slopes of
Monte Zoncolan, while he launched his last attacks on the nineteenth stage to
Cascata del Toce. It was the last time he rode a professional cycling race. After his team was not invited to the
2003 Tour de France, it was speculated that he would join
Bianchi in order to ride the Tour, but he made a plea for privacy in late June following his admission to a psychiatric clinic which specialised in nervous disorders, drug addiction and alcoholism. After being released from the clinic, he was acquitted of a pending court case for sporting fraud regarding his blood values in
1999 Giro d'Italia because doping was not considered a crime in 1999. Pantani told an Italian newspaper that cycling fans had to forget about Pantani as an athlete, while stating that cycling was the last thing on his mind and that he had gained weight. ==Doping==