While the potential exhumation of Marco Pantani’s body looks unlikely, Italian media reported last week it is possible as police look to re-examine the cause of death of the great cyclist in 2004.

The prosecutor in charge of the case needs new autopsies as the local office in Rimini destroyed the originals.

“The destruction of the autopsy report is automatic according to the Code of Criminal Procedure when the trial is finished,” Italy’s ANSA news agency quoted a statement from Rimini’s prosecutor’s office. “In this case that came 10 years after the judgment in the supreme court.”

Doctor Giuseppe Fortuni performed the autopsy in 2004 and it was determined that Pantani died as a result of a cocaine overdose.

Rimini’s head prosecutor Paolo Giovagnoli may not need a new autopsy as his medical expert in the case, Doctor France Tagliaro can use the same material used by Pantani’s family to push for the enquiry to be reopened.

Pantani’s lawyer Antonio De Rensis argues that Pantani let known men into his room and they hit him and forced him to drink diluted water wit lethal amounts of cocaine in it. He argues that police investigated the crime scene poorly and never even investigated the water bottle in the room.

La Gazzetta dello Sport claims there is now a “concrete theory” for an exhumation of the body.

There is also a case going on in Forli where a Mafia ring is believed to have played a role in Pantani being taken out of the 1999 Giro d’Italia while leading the race due to a high haematocrit level, which Pantani always said he never doped to get.