As afternoon melts into evening in the Italian Dolomites, the grey limestone walls of the Sella massif blush a glorious shade of rose-red. It is a phenomenon that locals call enrosadira (literally ‘turning pink’, but so much more evocative in Italian). And on Stage 17 of the 1998 Giro d’Italia, on the storied slopes of the 2,240m Passo Sella, the jersey of Marco Pantani underwent the same magical rose-tinted transformation.
Cheered on by tricolore-waving , the Italian cyclist’s gloriously aggressive acceleration on the Passo Sella turned his jersey from the of the mountains leader – which was only changed from green to blue in 2012 – into the iconic of the Giro leader. It was the first time Pantani, 28, had worn