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Sport's Strangest Crimes, Marco Pantani: Death of a Pirate, 4. Icarus Falls

Sport's Strangest Crimes

Marco Pantani: Death of a Pirate

4. Icarus Falls

Up next

July 6, 2023

23 minutes

Available for over a year

It’s 1999, and Marco Pantani is riding high after his Tour de victory - both the bad boy of cycling, and the saviour of the sport. The 1999 Giro D’Italia seems to be made for him, and he leads the race by over 20 minutes - until a late-stage disqualification stops the pirate in his bike tracks.

With the other riders overjoyed, rumours about criminal betting, conspiracies - and even the mafia - abound, but the pirate refuses to go down without a fight.

As Pantani flies too close to the sun, who might be watching from the shadows?

New episodes released Thursday. If you’re in the UK, listen to the full series of Sport’s Strangest Crimes - first on BBC Sounds - bbc.in/3PbXQxv

Narrated by Hugh Dennis, with the voice of Iain Ferrier

Sound design: Rich Evans

Additional production: Lorenzo Bodrero, Matt Kenyon and Ed Morrish

Writer and producer: Katie Sayer

Executive producer: Jon Holmes