Marco Pantani, the former Tour de France and Giro d'Italia winner who has been plagued by doping accusations and suspensions in recent years, was found dead in a Rimini residence Saturday, colleagues and residence employees said.
Italy's most popular cyclist was found in a room at the apartment-hotel "Le Rose" in this seaside city, said receptionist Paolo Buccellato. He said hotel staff entered Pantani's room sometime after 8pm after he hadn't been seen all day.
Buccellato said he saw medicines strewn about Pantani's room -- on the bed and floor -- and that Pantani was found lying on the ground, wearing just pants. The room, he said, was in disarray.
Prosecutor Paolo Gengarelli told reporters that the medicines included tranquilizers, the ANSA news agency said.
No explanation of death was provided, although news reports said it was not violent. Buccellato said there were no visible signs of injury. An autopsy was scheduled for Monday.
Gengarelli said that since Pantani arrived at the hotel four days ago, he had mostly stayed in his room, often leaving only to eat breakfast and occasionally ordering room-service for lunch.
Buccellato said it was the first time Pantani had checked in at "Le Rose," a modern five-story hotel in the resort city that was swarming with police and onlookers late Saturday.
There was no answer at Pantani's Mercatone Uno team or his management agency Saturday. A man who answered his manager's phone said the reports of Pantani's death were true, and that the cause of death wasn't yet known.
Italian television broke into regular programming to announce the death and ran file footage of some of the bald cyclist's more memorable victories.
"I'm devastated, it's a tragedy of enormous proportions for the entire cycling world," fellow cyclist Mario Cipollini, himself a former world champion, told news agency ANSA.
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