The Memorial Marco Pantani is professional road bicycle race held annually in Emilia-Romagna

Emilia-Romagna

Emilia–Romagna is an administrative region of Northern Italy comprising the two historic regions of Emilia and Romagna. The capital is Bologna; it has an area of and about 4.4 million inhabitants....

, Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

. The race has been organized since 2004 and serves as a memory of Marco Pantani

Marco Pantani

Marco Pantani was an Italian road racing cyclist, widely considered one of the best climbers in professional road bicycle racing...

. The race starts in Cesenatico

Cesenatico

Cesenatico is a port town with about 20,000 inhabitants on the Adriatic coast of Italy. It is located in the province of Forlì-Cesena in the region of Emilia-Romagna, about 30 km south of Ravenna...

, Marco Pantani hometown, and follows a route towards his birthplace, Cesena

Cesena

Cesena is a city and comune in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy, south of Ravenna and west of Rimini, on the Savio River, co-chief of the Province of Forlì-Cesena. It is at the foot of the Apennines, and about 15 km from the Adriatic Sea.-History:Cesena was originally an Umbrian...

. In 2007 the race was organised as a 1.1 event on the UCI Europe Tour.

After Gilberto Simoni

Gilberto Simoni

Gilberto Simoni is an Italian ex-professional road bicycle racer, most recently for . Simoni is twice winner of the Giro d'Italia cycling race...

 won in 2005 edition of the race, he paid tribute to Pantani's memory by saying:

Winners