ROME, 17 February 2004 — A magistrate said on Sunday he believed that Marco Pantani, the Italian cycling great found dead in a hotel room, did not commit suicide although a definitive answer will come only after an autopsy.

“No-one is talking about suicide and I exclude everything until the end of the autopsy,” Paolo Gengarelli, who is investigating the mysterious death, told reporters in the central Italian city of Rimini.

He said only the autopsy, scheduled for the next day, could tell for sure what caused the death of the 34-year-old rider, who won the Giro d’Italia and the Tour de France in 1998.

Police in the Adriatic resort city have ruled out violence and said there were no illegal drugs in the room when Pantani’s body was discovered on Saturday night.

They told a news conference four types of tranquillizers were found near the body and in the kitchen section.

Some 10 packages of prescription sedatives were found, some empty and some started. Italian media reported that anti-depressants also were found.

A staff member at the hotel in Rimini, just down the coast from Pantani’s home town of Cesenatico, found him on the floor. He was wearing jeans and was naked from the waist up.

Gengarelli earlier told reporters that Pantani, who had been treated at a clinic recently for depression, had written “some thoughts” on hotel stationery but it was not a farewell note.

He said the rider, whose later career was blighted by doping accusations, had effectively secluded himself in the room for five days and left it only for breakfast.

The death of Pantani, nicknamed ‘The Pirate’ because of his trademark shaved head and bandana, shocked the sporting world. A sash on one of the many bunches of flowers left at the hotel read: “Farewell Pirate, you will remain forever in our hearts.” The headline in the Italian sports daily Gazzetta dello Sport said it all: “Lost Hero, We Adored You”.

Five-times Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong said on his website: “This is terrible and shocking news. My thoughts and condolences go out to his family, friends, and fans.

Armstrong had held a grudge against Pantani after letting his rival win the Tour de France’s toughest mountain stage on Mont Ventoux in 2000 only for the insulted Pantani to attack the American in the later stages against the ‘code’ of the race.

But Armstrong said on Sunday: “Regardless of our battles on and off the bike, I had a deep respect for Marco. Cycling has indeed lost a great champion and a great personality.”

Former Italian World Cup ski champion Alberto Tomba said Pantani had been abandoned. “It’s a real tragedy. For champions it is too easy to go from being loved and exalted to being hated. I think Pantani found himself alone at the precise moment that he was in the most need,” Tomba said.

AC Milan wore black arm bands during their 1-1 draw at Lecce on Sunday in honor of the rider, who was one of their fans. Spain’s five-time Tour de France winner Miguel Indurain described Pantani as a “tragic genius”.

“Apart from his undeniable quality as a rider, he got people hooked on the sport,” Indurain said of the specialist climber in the Spanish sports daily Marca.

“There may be riders who have achieved more than him, but they never succeeded in drawing in the fans like he did.”

The Spaniard said Pantani’s career had been scarred by the controversy surrounding the 1999 Giro when he was thrown out of the race for failing a test for haematocrit — an indicator, though not proof of the use of performance-enhancing drugs.