In 1998 the Italian rider known as the 'Pirate' doubled up to become both Tour de France champion and the King of the Mountains - proving against all the odds that pure climbers can overcome the powerful time trial specialists.
The bandana-wearing Marco Pantani, who sadly died of a cocaine overdose in 2004, was edged into third-place in 1997 despite some titanic triumphs in the Alps and Pyrenees over eventual tour winner Jan Ullrich, but this year he was to get his revenge.
Having already claimed the Giro d'Italia, Pantani set about dismantling Ullrich's challenge by famously defeating him by almost nine minutes in one epic Alpine mountain stage, from Grenoble to Les Deux Alpes.
It was a deficit the German could never recover from despite his valiant attempts and Pantani went on to become the first Italian since Felice Gimondi in 1965 to win the event.
'Il Pirata' was not implicated in the severe drugs scandal which marred the 1998 tour and was therefore viewed as a saviour for the sport both on and off the roads.
But in the following years which passed his reputation was to be irrefutably damaged by a string of doping allegations and the circumstances of his death.
