Countdown to the Tour de France: 10 days | Marco Pantani’s legendary ride on Alpe d’Huez

The 2025 is now just around the corner, 10 days away to be precise. And now we can’t help but getting carried away, as we could have an all time great Tour de France ahead. Will Jonas Vingegaard or Remco Evenepoel be able to do anything about Tadej Pogacar? Who will be the king of the sprinters? And is this the year we see Mathieu van der Poel at his very best in July?

So much to talk about, and so little time to wait. Over the next 10 days, we are going to talk about 10 of the best moments, rivalries, and stories in Tour de France history. From Chris Froome on Mont Ventoux, to Greg LeMond’s dramatic victory, and also Primoz Roglic’s heartbreak in 2020, there’s so many moments to look back on that defy mere sporting stories.

The Tour de France goes beyond sport, it is one of the biggest global events held annually. We won’t be able to cover every moment, but you can let us know in the comments any of your personal favourites.

Today, we’re going to look at Marco Pantani’s record breaking climb of Alpe d’Huez back in 1997, which remains arguably the greatest climbing performance in cycling history. The diminutive Italian climber, known as “Il Pirata” (The Pirate), delivered a record shattering ascent that day, one which would cement his legend still to this day. That ride is remembered with equal parts awe and ambivalence, symbolising both Pantani’s genius and the sport’s troubled 1990s.

It was Stage 13 of the 1997 Tour, deep in the Alps and deep into the race, when Pantani chose to make his move. From the base of Alpe d’Huez, he sprang from the pack with explosive acceleration, instantly distancing the elite field. The fans lining the 21 hairpin bends witnessed a masterclass in climbing as Pantani danced on the pedals, out of the saddle, steadily increasing his lead with every switchback.

Jan Ullrich, the Tour’s young leader in the yellow jersey, tried to respond but soon found himself at his limit, unable to reel Pantani back. Richard Virenque of France, another renowned climber, also cracked in Pantani’s wake, as did every other contender on that ascent. By the midpoint of the climb, it was clear that Pantani was on a special ride, chasing not just a stage win but cycling history.

Pantani reached the summit finish alone, securing a dominant stage victory and stopping the clock at 37 minutes and 35 seconds for the climb. That astonishing time set a new record for the Alpe d’Huez ascent, one that still stands all these decades later. In terms of sheer speed, he had flown up the 13.8 km mountain at an average of just over 23 km/h on gradients averaging 8%, a feat that defied what many thought humanly possible on such a brutal climb.

Pantani’s blistering ascent instantly entered cycling lore. Not even Lance Armstrong, at the peak of his (ultimately tainted) Tour de France reign, ever surpassed Pantani’s benchmark on Alpe d’Huez. That day, Pantani made a compelling case for the title of cycling’s greatest climber, combining tactical daring with an almost inhuman capacity to sustain speed on steep grades.

What makes Pantani’s victory on stage 13 even more impressive was how good Jan Ullrich was that year. The young German won the Tour by 9 minutes to Virenque, one of the biggest ever margins, and Pantani was third over 14 minutes back. Clearly, Ullrich was in a league of his own, but on Alpe d’Huez he had absolutely no answer for Pantani.

Pantani’s performance in 1997 did more than earn him a prestigious stage win; it signaled the makings of a champion. After finishing third overall in that Tour behind Ullrich and Virenque, Pantani returned in 1998 even stronger. In 1998 he achieved a historic Giro d’Italia and Tour de France double, becoming the first Italian to win the Tour in decades and solidifying his status as the sport’s dominant climber of the era.

It wasn’t until just last year, and a certain Tadej Pogacar, that another man completed the Giro-Tour double. So, for over 25 years, Pantani had achieved a feat the rest of the peloton could only dream of.

Pantani’s 1998 Tour victory, achieved in a race marred by the infamous Festina doping scandal, elevated his mystique even further. He conquered the mountain stages in dramatic fashion that year, including a memorable solo attack in the freezing rain over multiple Alpine passes to seize the yellow jersey. In those triumphs, Pantani seemed to confirm what his Alpe d’Huez record had suggested: when the road went uphill, he was in a league of his own.

That fact is emphasised more by the fact that in the prologue of the 1998 Tour, Pantani lost over 4 minutes to Ullrich in an individual time trial. He finished 181st out of 189 riders, but still went on to win the yellow jersey, simply through his incredible climbing, and he actually won the Tour by six minutes.

However, Pantani’s greatness was tragically intertwined with cycling’s darkest chapters. In 1999, while leading the Giro d’Italia, Pantani was expelled from the race after a test revealed an abnormally high hematocrit level, a result widely seen as evidence of EPO use. It was a crushing blow virtually overnight, the hero of the mountains was implicated in scandal, and Pantani’s soaring career suddenly plummeted.

In the years that followed, Pantani struggled with injuries, suspensions, and a deep depression, and he never returned to his winning ways. The late ’90s and early 2000s brought a reckoning for the entire sport as doping revelations emerged, and Pantani became one of that era’s most tragic figures. He died on February 14th 2004 at just 34 years old, alone in a hotel room, his life cut short by a cocaine overdose. a heartbreaking end that underscored the toll of fame, pressure, and scandal on the fallen champion.

The legacy of Pantani’s 1997 Alpe d’Huez ride is double-edged, like much of cycling’s best moments from the 90s and early 2000s. On one hand, there is enduring awe at an athletic achievement that borders on the unbelievable, a mountain climb so fast and furious that it remains unmatched in the Tour’s long history. On the other hand, there is the knowledge that many extraordinary performances of that era were fuelled by rampant doping, which forces fans and historians to view Pantani’s records, and in fact any new records, with a measure of scepticism and sorrow.

Since the 1990s, cycling has changed significantly, stricter anti-doping measures have led to slower, more human-scaled times on the big climbs, and even the strongest modern riders cannot approach Pantani’s Alpe d’Huez mark. Thibaut Pinot’s gritty stage win on the climb in 2015, for instance, took over 41 minutes, and the duel between Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard in 2022 likewise fell well short of Pantani’s pace. In a sense, the very fact that his record still stands is a reminder of how extraordinary (and how tainted) the EPO-fueled era was, even as it immortalises Patani as one of the most gifted climbers ever to grace the Tour.

For dedicated Tour enthusiasts, Marco Pantani’s day of supremacy on Alpe d’Huez remains unforgettable. It encapsulates everything that made fans revere Pantani: the fearless attacking spirit, the drama in the mountains, and the almost poetic way he could destroy the best riders in the world when the road tilted upward. At the same time, it stands as a cautionary tale from a complicated period in cycling, ensuring that Pantani’s story, and that 37-minute ascent into the clouds, will always be remembered with both reverence and regret.