"Are you up for it?", Pantani asked him. "Yes", Konyshev replied. But look, every child is born only once in his life and in yours too, Pantani explained. But I want to help you win the Tour, Konyshev countered.

So many "buts". It was June 1998. Marco (there's a "but" - an initial "but" - in Marco) Pantani had just won the Giro d'Italia and was assembling the team that would support him at the Tour de France. Dimitri Konyshev, Dima (and there's a "but" - a final "but" - in Dima), was essential: in flat stages, descents, and rolling terrain. Talent, class, and experience could have made him captain in any team, but that year Dima, 32 years old (four years older than his captain), Russian, had chosen to be a domestique - yes, a domestique, albeit a luxury one - for Pantani in Mercatone Uno. But there was a "but", another "but", a "but" more persistent than the others: Dima's wife was expecting a child. "But I want to help you win the Tour" was said by Konyshev so decisively that this time it was the captain who obeyed the domestique.

That Tour began on July 11th in Dublin, Ireland, with an individual 5.6 km prologue, and for Pantani, it began badly: 181st (out of 189, with seven Italians among the last 10), 48" behind winner Chris Boardman and 43" behind direct rival Jan Ullrich. "There wasn't a day when Marco didn't ask me if there were any news at my home" - Dima recalls. "And there wasn't a day when Marco didn't remind me that I could - perhaps he used the word 'should' - return home". Especially because, in the meantime, there had been some complications. Konyshev (and especially his wife) held on until July 20th, when the Tour reached Pau, Pantani's delay had expanded to over 8' from yellow jersey Laurent Desbiens and more than 5' from Ullrich, Konyshev had finished 168th and last more than half an hour behind. "The next day, after obtaining consent, or rather, obeying Pantani's order, I left the race and went home". Four days later, on July 25th, in Verona, Alexander would be born. But the comeback was in the air. On July 27th, Pantani would triumph at Les Deux Alpes, first at the finish line and first in the standings, on August 2nd he would display and celebrate the yellow jersey under the Arch of Triumph in Paris. Thanks also to Dima.

Twenty-two years ago Pantani - he was 34 - died. The circumstances have never been clarified. "But it's clear that Marco was a special person" - says Konyshev, now a sports director at Padovani -. "For his sensitivity, his conscience, his humanity".