It will be 18 years since the death of Marco Pantani on Valentine's Day and while Cesenatico - and the flock of lovers of the Romagna champion scattered throughout Italy and the world - is preparing for a commemoration in church, organized by the family, the third survey on the end of the 'Pirate' continues.
The taxi driver who claims to have accompanied two women to the 'Le Rose' residence in Rimini, where on February 14, 2004, the cycling champion was found lifeless was questioned by the Carabinieri of Rimini in recent days.
The taxi driver would have confirmed the episode but the details of the two women are still to be confirmed.
To push for the reopening of a third investigation, after the previous two had dismissed the case as death caused by a mix of drugs and drugs, is Tonina Belletti, the mother of Pantani who, last February 4, had been heard by the military for three and a half hours.
The climber's mother - capable of winning the Giro d'Italia and the Tour de France in the same year, 1998 - told the men of the investigative nucleus of the Rimini operations department that, "Marco wasn't alone the night he died, with he had two escorts ".
In any case, the new file of the Rimini Public Prosecutor's Office, which archived the last investigation in 2015, is still today, even after new testimonies, arranged on model 45 which is used for the registration of a file in the register of non-documents. constituting crime reports.
In the coming days, it will be understood whether after the taxi driver's testimony it will be possible to hypothesize new crimes such as the failure to rescue people to be identified.
At the end of the first investigation, in 2005 for the crime of death resulting from another crime, namely the drug dealer that caused the overdose of Pantani Fabio Miradossa and Ciro Veneruso negotiated sentences of respectively 4 years and 10 months and 3 years and 10 months while the the second investigation was closed in 2016, after new forensic reports, substantially confirming the findings of the first.
Beyond the judicial reverberation of the death of the cyclist from Romagna, Cesenatico, and the entire planet of two wheels, are ready to commemorate him 18 years after his death.
Epicenter of memory, his hometown where fans from all over the Peninsula are expected.
The cemetery - which will be open from 7 to 17 - is historically the destination of many people who flock to the saddle of a bicycle but also the 'Spazio Pantani', a family-run museum next to the railway station, the bronze monument dedicated to Marco in Piazza Marconi or the famous piadine kiosk that belonged to the family are among the places to address a thought to the 'Pirate' with the yellow bandana.
Finally, in the evening, at 8 pm, a mass will be held in the church of San Giacomo on the canal port of the Romagna town designed by Leonardo da Vinci.