Pantani

I'd also recommend that book. It's very good.

This is no more credible than people who still insist Armstrong was the best ever Tour rider. Pantani was a screwed up, desperate and unhappy man whose achievements are as tainted as those of the other cheats he rode alongside or ahead of.
His life was sad and his death tragic and sordid but there's no need to keep claiming that we know anything of his 'natural' ability.

I agree with everything you say except the last sentence. As has been pointed out in this thread, everyone else was doping at the time, but they weren't flying up the hills, attacking, climbing on the drops, dancing on the pedals, leaving everyone else for dust up the hills like Pantani did, all while being interesting, eccentric, entertaining - a natural foil when cycling was dominated by boring machine-like Indurain. I think it's disingenuous to write off his whole life (and career) as sad. And when I say 'the best climber' I don't mean in numbers or statistics, of course, but that he will always be my favourite because of his particular style.

Yes, he was flawed, but I genuinely believe that he had a huge natural gift for climbing, exactly the right psychological attitude (there's that quote I can't find about how he attacked climbs because he wanted the pain to be over with as soon as possible, and the story about him taking off his ring and throwing it into a hedge on a climb as he sought to shed every extra gram) but also the flamboyance to make it all interesting.

Isn't that something to be celebrated?