From the Library: The Death of Marco Pantani

I know, I know, this happened quite a while ago and I've just now got around to reading about it. And I guess that begs the question - did I really need to read about it, or was what I already knew enough? Probably the latter, truth be told. For me this was a case of clearly identifying the content from the title; I was looking for biographical content, I was hoping for biographical content, and there is a lot, most of it serving as precedent to "The Death of" part of the title, incidents in a progression. Probably I could have been more satisfied with a straightforward biography. I will say, though, that the amount of research that went into this book is incredible. There were times when the numbers - of hematocrit levels, and rEPO, and haemoglobin, and etc, etc got to be too much, and I would skip those sections, Other than those, however, the remainder of the book flowed well and kept my interest moving toward the end. I was surprised by the extent to which Italy was taken with the idea that Marco may have murdered as opposed to a victim of his own depression and voracious appetite for drugs.

The Death of Marco Pantani was hit and miss for me, and fortunately more hit than miss.

 Rendell, Matt   The Death of Marco Pantani: A Biography
London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2015