By Tick of Cycling4Fans

There's nothing funny to write this week. The tragic death of Marco Pantani, alone and confused, has dominated the weekend's news. What happened, why and how, and who (if anyone) was to blame -- at this point, there are no answers to these questions. Perhaps there never will be. Hopefully, the cycling world will be able to learn some lessons from his life and death. And hopefully we fans will long be able to carry in our hearts and minds the image of a little man with a bandana on his head and a glint in his eye as he flies up a mountain.

His was not the only death and bad news in the cycling world. Johan Sermon, an U-23 Belgian rider, died in his sleep of apparent heart failure. He was only 21 years old. GS-III rider Fabian De Waele announced his retirement at the age of 28 because of heart problems. And T-Mobile assistant team manager Brian Holm announced that he has taken on his toughest competition -- the intestinal cancer that he was just diagnosed with.

Let us hope that things go better and that in the coming weeks the focus of discussion will not be death and illness, but who won which race and why.