Marco Pantani NEVER had a positive doping test in his entire cycling career.
In 1999, the Italian newspaper la Repubblica published information that linked Marco Pantani to an investigation on the use of performance-enhancing substances in Italian sports.
According to the information released by the newspaper, Dr. Francesco Conconi administered EPO to Italian athletes from 1993 to 1998, including Pantani and other cyclists of Carrera.
Dr. Michele Ferrari learned about doping from Dr. Francesco Conconi in Italy.
It was revealed that Pantani's name appeared on a file marked "Dblab", seized from Dr. Conconi's Biomedical Research Institute at Ferrara, which detailed athlete's hematocrit levels between 1993 and 1995.
In 1994, his haematocrit values fluctuated from 40.7% on 16 March, early in the season, to 54.55% on 23 May, during the first stages of the Giro d'Italia. His values reached 58% on 8 June, after winning two stages of the race, and were 57.4% on 27 July, after the Tour de France.
In March 1995, his hematocrit values had dropped to 45%, but they reached 56% in July during the Tour de France, where he won two stages; and over 60% in October, after the accident in the Milano–Torino. In 2004, Dr. Francesco Conconi and his two assistants were acquitted by judge Franca Oliva because the crimes were not deemed illegal at the time although they were deemed "morally guilty" of promoting doping.
During the 2001 Giro d'Italia, a syringe containing traces of insulin was found in Pantani's room. Pantani claimed... that the insulin had been planted and that he did not stay in the room that night.
In 2006, Pantani was linked to the Operación Puerto doping case.
According to documentation released by Spanish radio network Cadena SER, Pantani was allegedly given the code name "PTNI" by Dr. Eufemiano Fuentes, with a detailed program in 2003, his last season, including:
EPO, HGH, Insulin, Levothyroxine (T4 thyroid hormone) and IGF-1, and anabolic steroids.
Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera indicated that he was administered over 40,000 units of EPO, seven doses of growth hormone, thirty doses of anabolic steroids and four doses of hormones used to treat menopause.
In 2006 Jesús Manzano, a Spanish professional road racing cyclist whose statements led the Guardia Civil to conduct the Operación Puerto investigation, disclosed in an interview with French television channel France 3 that Pantani was a client of Dr. Eufemiano Fuentes.
Matt Rendell's biography of Pantani suggests Pantani used recombinant erythropoietin (rEPO) throughout his professional career.
It alleges that seasonal hematocrit levels from several sources showed variations which exceeded those possible naturally, and that Pantani's main victories were probably won also thanks to blood hematocrit levels which could have been up to 60%.
A French senate report into doping released in July 2013 confirmed that Pantani had tested positive for EPO during retroactive testing of samples from the 1998 Tour de France, which was conducted in 2004.
Pantani was the winner of the 1998 Tour de France.
Investigators tried to find a reason for Pantani's high hematocrit values, including a hematocrit value of 57.6% recorded on 1 May 1995, at a hospital after he had an accident while training, an investigation in which the doctor pointed out the presence of abnormal hematological values. Upon Guariniello's request to see Pantani's medical record after his accident at the 1997 Giro d'Italia, it was revealed that the blood test results had disappeared from the folder at the hospital and the police did not rule out "intentional removal".
Pantani was eventually indicted on a so-called “fraud in sport”, but his lawyers argued that Pantani's hematocrit may have been elevated by:
...a COMBINATION of training at high ALTITUDE, suffering from DEHYDRATION during the race, trauma of his accident... and a MARGIN OF ERROR FOR THE SAMPLING METHOD.
(This sounds exactly like Ms. Paula Radcliffe (Brit-Doper-Cheater-Liar-Fraud™) when she decided that it was time to call Dr. Martial "Plan B" Saugy...to make her leaked "highly abnormal" blood test results" go away.)
Her new name is Ms. Paula "Pantani" Radcliffe.
It is just a coincidence.