Fans of cinema are fast becoming experts on the subject of competitive cycling and its associated doping scandals. Thus, hot on the wheels of The Armstrong Lie comes this tragic account of the rise and fall of Italian legend Marco Pantani, who could beat anyone on the climbs, but careered downhill after a blood test at the 1999 Giro d'Italia took the sheen off his golden reputation. While Alex Gibney wrestled entertainingly with slippery Lance Armstrong (who turns up here in archive, and is branded "the real wound"), Erskine's moving documentary must portray its conflicted subject in absentia, with friends and relatives (his mother is heartbreaking) reporting his disillusionment with the world of cycling, which he tellingly branded "a mafia". The film sidesteps any definitive conclusions, and the dramatised reconstructions jar, but you're left with the impression that the charismatic Pantani was more sinned against than sinning.
Pantani: The Accidental Death of a Cyclist review – moving portrait of the Italian sporting great
This article is more than 9 years old
James Erskine's documentary uses often heartbreaking testimony from friends and relatives to tell the story of a man 'more sinned against than sinning'
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