According to the danish newspaper Politiken today, Bjarne Riis has pre-selected the riders who will support Ivan Basso in his Giro d’Italia campaign this year. The riders that have been named (in addition to Basso) are Michael Blaudzun, Jakob Piil, Andrea Peron, Frank Schleck, Peter Luttenberger, Giovanni Lombardi, Manuel Calvente and David Zabriskie.

According to reports on Feltet.dk, David Zabriskie has so impressed team owner Bjarne Riis, that he is expected to ride both the Giro and the Tour alongside Ivan Basso. As a result of this, Zabriskie will be holding a short break in racing in order to better build up his form for the big double assault starting in May.

Team CSC reports that Jakob Piil will also be one of Basso’s support riders at the Giro. The Danish rider has had his early season ruined by an injury, and as a result won’t be riding as many of the spring classics as originally planned. Riis feels that Piil’s experience will be of great help to Basso, and notes that Piil also adds the team a strong option in breakaways on the less challenging stages. As one of Team CSC’s best hopes for individual stage victories and a strong support, Piil is also expected to ride the Tour de France.

Team CSC also reports that Ivan Basso’s preparations for the Giro are going well and on schedule. Prior to this weekend’s ride at the Criterium International, he is going to be looking over some of the tough mountain stages of this year’s Giro d’Italia together with Riis and Peron.

In a recent interview for the Belgian newspaper “La Derniere Heure”, Basso comments on his attempt at both the Giro and the Tour this year. “One thing’s for sure, I’m not riding the Giro as preparation for the Tour…I’m participating in both to win.”

On defending Giro champion, Damiano Cunego, he remarks: “He’s more of an explosive climber but I’m a better time trialist so the solution is to be on Cunego’s wheel up the mountain and maximize my time in the time trial.”

Ivan Basso participated at the 40th Tirreno-Adriatico, getting in some race kilometres in Italy in preparation for his attempt at the Giro. In the race won by Oscar Freire, Basso placed in 72nd on the GC.

Team CSC (with most of Ivan’s lieutenants for the Giro and Tour: Voigt, Julich, Sastre, Zabriskie) rode themselves into the history books at Paris-Nice, taking the first ProTour stage victory ever (Jens Voigt in the prologue) and the first ProTour race victory (Bobby Julich). Julich rode into the yellow jersey on the explosive Mont Faron stage, and - ably supported by a strong team and in particular a superbly riding Jens Voigt - defended the jersy from attacks by Jaksche, Valverde and Zaballa on the last two stages. Voigt in 4th place and Schleck in 7th rounded out yet another impressive team effort from Team CSC.

Ivan Basso rode the Giro di Lucca today, and finished in 75th position, 28 seconds behind race winner Mario Cipollini. From Team-CSC.com: Ivan Basso crashed ahead of the last climb, but he was not injured.

From Team-CSC.com:

Ivan Basso led Team CSC in Saturday’s Milano-Torino, which was won by Fassa Bortolo’s Fabio Sacchi. Basso finished 19th in this, his first race of the new season.

“As expected the decisive attack came on the steep Colle di Superga Mountain, 17 kilometers before the finish. 10 riders escaped and Ivan finished as part of the second group. He has every reason to be pleased with his season opener. He is definitely where he should be right now as far as form goes. Michael Blaudzun was very active for most of the day and he did very well. It has been quite cold today, but the race went ahead without any problems,” said assisting sports director Carsten Jeppesen following the 199 kilometer race.

This weekend (February 27), Ivan Basso competed in his first race of the season, the French criterium Ronde d’Aix en Provence, and scored his first victory of the season coming in ahead of Dario Frigo and Christophe Moreau.