25 years later, the facts that led to the disqualification of Marco Pantani from a Giro d'Italia that he had practically already won and over which the shadow of organized crime hovers with the management of clandestine betting is still being investigated .

The Trento Public Prosecutor's Office, led by Sandro Raimondi, has reopened the investigation into a hypothetical plot to alter the blood tests of the "pirate" in Madonna di Campiglio and then exclude him from the Corsa Rosa which he was dominating. The bettors were behind it. linked to the Camorra: the champion had to be eliminated from the race because he was the favourite, even in the betting.

The new investigation was entrusted to the prosecutor of the DDA Patrizia Foiera , and in reality it was started a year ago following the results of the work completed in 2022 by the Anti-Mafia Commission. Results according to which it was necessary to further investigate the "anomalies" linked to that affair on which, therefore, the final word has not yet been put.

On Friday morning, it was learned, prosecutor Foiero went to the Bollate prison , in the province of Milan, to hear Renato Vallanzasca as an informed person on the facts (not prescribed, it was ascertained), who, being in precarious health conditions , he would not have been able to answer the questions .

In fact, it was the handsome Rene, about twenty years ago, who said that, during his detention, he had been approached by another prisoner, a Camorra member, who told him not to bet on the Pirate because he "wouldn't have finished that Giro" .

This is a piece which, together with the stories and wiretaps of some Camorra members, led to the hypothesis in at least two investigations, later closed, that Campania organized crime would have intervened to prevent the 'pirate' from wearing the pink shirt to Milan .

For this reason, Pantani, who was winning the triumph, was checked before the Madonna di Campiglio stage, when the results of the anti-doping tests on his blood, taken early in the morning, showed a hematocrit value of 52, above the permitted limit which is of 50. That test led to the disqualification of the champion from Romagna and from that day his decline probably began.

The investigation is model 44, i.e. without a crime and without suspects.

The file also included a substantial brief presented by the lawyers of Pantani's mother .

However, the prosecutor has already heard from several people and will have to listen to others to try to reconstruct the alleged clandestine betting ring in an attempt to 'write' or 'rewrite' an important page on the decline of the 'pirate'.

(Unioneonline/vl)

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