B. Lafferty wrote:
"Richard Adams" wrote in message
...

Callistus Valerius wrote:


Pantani's fans plan Alpe protest
The Tour may be honouring the late Marco Pantani at Alpe d'Huez on

Tuesday,

but Pantani's fans won't be returning the gesture.


Wednesday's eagerly anticipated mountain time trial to the Alpe d'Huez,
officially dedicated to Marco Pantani, will also play host to an angry
protest by the late Pirate's fans against the Tour de France

organisation.

Five months after Pantani's death from a cocaine overdose, a group of

the

Italian's die-hard supporters will distribute leaflets amongst record

crowds

of up to one million people on the Alpe. They intention is to condemn

the

"hypocrisy of the Tour organisers."

A two-time winner on the Alpe, in 1995 and 1997, Pantani was

acrimoniously

declined an invitation to the Tour in both 2001 and 2003, a double
disappointment to which the climber referred in the scribbled notes

which

were his final legacy. This alone was enough, it seems, for the

Pantani's

fans to spy blood on the hands of Tour boss Jean-Marie Leblanc.

The leaflet reads as follows:

"Today's gesture of dedicating today's stage to Marco doesn't erase the
outrage of having prevented him from riding the Tour de France in 2001

and

2003. Races are made by champions (they are not the property of

organisers)

and champions have the right to participate even when they can't win.

THE

WAR ON DOPING CAN'T BE FOUGHT BY CRIMINALISING A CHAMPION. One of the
reasons why Marco died is the continual, five-year long, assassination

of

his dignity, his talent and his pride.

"Marco honoured the Tour de France with his exploits every time that he
participated. The organisers of the Tour have excluded him from the race

he

loved, wounding deeply. Hypocrisy kills, let's put an end to it."
---------------
There it is folks, Pantani rises from the grave to haunt Leblanc.




They better watch out. The Gendarmarie can be pretty brutal with
protesters. Saw a picture from a couple years ago, agricultural
supporters blocked the road. Some french cop was slugging so skinny kid .


Didn't Bernard Hinault punch one of those protesters as well?

Such an honor!!!!