After three intense weeks, Ivan Basso can look back at a Giro d’Italia with both ups and downs. On his Italian site, Basso remarks on his poor fortune, but notes that it also gave him many important experiences. With the Giro providing Basso with his first stage victory in the Giro, his first victory in a major time trial, and his first pink jersey, Basso looks to the future with great confidence. Basso is certain that he will come back, and the next time it will be to take the win.

CSC Supremo Bjarne Riis is certain that Ivan Basso would have won the Giro if he had avoided the devastating stomach bug. It is still uncertain exactly what caused Basso’s stomach problems. In the aftermath, Riis speculates that stress probably played a contributing factor in bringing about Basso’s downfall, increasing the problems caused by an upset stomach. However, he thinks the experience will strengthen Ivan, making him harder and tougher in the future. While there are still many things to improve upon (apparently Bjarne was not too pleased with all the time spent with the press after stage 18), Riis expresses his belief that the Giro has helped make Basso a much more complete rider. He singles out, in particular, the time trial win which not only marks Basso out as a danger man against the clock to his rivals (in addition to his already notable mountain skills), but is also a huge morale boost. With a total of three stage victories, Team CSC can not be too dissappointed with the results of this year’s Giro (which was won by Savoldelli, if you haven’t been following the news).

For the next couple of days, Ivan Basso will be taking it easy, but preparations for the coming Tour de France will start again already from friday. Basso’s schedule will include the Italian Time Trial Championships with two other races optionally being included: the Italian Road Racing Championship and the Eindhoven Team Time Trial. But otherwise the time is 100% dedicated to preparing for this July’s Tour de France.

Gallery of images from Giro d’Italia 2005 at Team-CSC.com

On the final mountain stage of the Giro, Savoldelli defended his race leadership from determined attack by Simoni and Rujano Guillen - with good help from Lotto-Domo. By the end of the stage, he held the race leadership with less than 30 seconds over Simoni and with Rujano (who won the stage) also within a minute.

Ivan Basso got into trouble on the Colle de Finestre, and once the train had gone, took it fairly easy. Riis commented after the stage that it was a conscious decision by the team that Basso should go all out on yesterday’s time trial, even if it cost him saturday, in order to prepare for the Tour.

”I actually had quite a good feeling in my legs for a long time, but when the attacks started to get serious on Finestre, I could feel, that today I had to pay the price for the two previous victories. But OK, we tried, and the team made a brilliant effort along the way. It would’ve been perfect with a hat trick, but today I just didn’t have enough strength left,” said Ivan Basso after the stage.

Basso also commented that he would be back, as he would like to attempt the Giro-Tour double again next year.

Basso blitzed the field for the second day in a row, taking the victory in the second time trial stage of the Giro, and clearly underlining the fact that he is among the strongest riders at this year’s Giro d’Italia.

”Today represents more than a stage victory. It is a mile stone in my career. Previously time trials have always been my Achilles heel, but now I have evolved to the extent, that I’m able to win in this discipline. I have taken a great leap forward both physically and mentally, and all the hard work, I’ve done together with Bjarne, has yet again paid off. I still have a lot to learn as a rider, but at least now I can say, that I’m moving in the right direction,” said a happy Ivan Basso.

After a week of ups and downs, Ivan Basso finally crowned his campaign at this year’s Giro d’Italia with a beautiful stage victory at Limone-Piemonte. Frank Schleck did the yeoman work before the final climb, creating a first selection with a smaller group of six riders while the GC leaders were still watching on each other. Primarily through the work of Schleck, Gruppo Basso built up a led of a minute and a half. When Schleck went aside, Caruso tried to attack, but Basso promptly responded and blasted past him for the decisive attack of the stage.

”Today I proved, that we meant business, when we made the decision for me to continue in this race. I’ve known all along, that I’m a strong climber – maybe the strongest one here. And today I wanted to win without having to sprint for it. After my bad luck I had only one thing on my mind: To win in Limone Piemonte. I said this to Bjarne already on Stelvio. Now I did it, and it’s a big relief both for me and my team. The whole group did a tremendous job for me today, and they all deserve a big thanks. I began this race almost three weeks ago with an ambition to win. That wasn’t meant to be, and a stage win can’t change that fact – but that’s all behind me now. This victory says a lot about how much I’ve developed as a rider. A development owed first and foremost to Bjarne,” said Ivan Basso after the 194 kilometer stage.

Bjarne Riis concluded his comments on the stage by saying that CSC would be gunning for victory both in tommorrow’s time trial (where Basso and Zabriskie should both stand a chance) as well as Saturday’s long mountain stage.

Despite a terrible Sunday that ruined any chance Ivan Basso has in the overall, he stuck in there and decided to start both monday and wednesday. It is now suspected that Ivan’s stomach problems may have been caused by some bad food; Christian Vande Velde who also suffered sunday (though not as bad as Ivan) believes it may have been the boiled eggs at breakfast. Regardless, Ivan Basso is determined to reach Milano and complete the Giro. Riis - who initially wished for Basso to pull out - agreed with his Captain’s plan. When asked about what consequences the illness may have for Ivan’s tour chances, Riis expressed confidence that there would be no adverse effects.

“Today I felt better, and my stomach problems are almost gone. I managed to get a good rest on our day off yesterday, so now the question is, if I have enough strength left in my legs. I believe, I have the opportunity to make a result in the mountains, and if I don’t succeed tomorrow, I still have another chance on Saturday,” said Ivan Basso after today’s stage.

An illness-wracked Ivan Basso was unable to defend his position on the GC today, as the peloton went over the Stelvio. As the pace went up over the climb, Ivan was inevitably shelled out of the back of the peloton, still carefully paced by his CSC team mates. Already 17 minutes down by the summit, Ivan stopped up on the summit. The team showed concern for the captain as he got a warm jacket, a conciliatory pat on the back from Riis, and a quick check up on his condition before he once again rode under the watchful eyes of his waiting team mates.

Ivan Basso showed class and grit, finishing 42 minutes off the pace on a stage that turned out to be a nightmare.

Riis says he is considering to pull Basso from the race. The only reason to continue, he says, is if he thinks Basso still has the chance to take a stage victory.

“I suffered like I’ve never suffered before today, but I wanted to finish. On the top of the first mountain I tried to eat a little, but I couldn’t get anything down. I wasn’t able to eat anything throughout the stage, so I was completely tapped of energy. I had nothing in my legs, and it was pure will power and the help of my teammates that carried me through this stage,” Basso said after the stage.

Ivan Parra won stage 14, taking his second Giro stage in a row. Savoldelli lost about 30 seconds to Simoni, Garate, and Di Luca, but stays in the pink jersey.

On today’s stage, Paolo Savoldelli put in a decisive attack to gain 1:08 minutes on Ivan Basso and take the pink jersey. Ivan Parra won the stage.

”It was a very difficult stage for me. I felt sick and had a stomach ache right from the start, but I hoped it would get better as the stage went on. Well, it didn’t and I really suffered on the last climb. I tried to limit the damage, and compared to how bad I felt, the time loss wasn’t too bad. I’ve always known, you can’t take anything for granted in a race like this, and anyone can have a bad day for one reason or another, and today it was my turn. Now I’m hoping for a speedy recovery, so I can attempt to recapture the jersey,” Ivan Basso said after the stage.

Basso was in trouble already on the second to the last climb of the day when Cunego and Simoni attacked, but CSC (with Zabriskie and Schleck as the last men) did incredible duty to bring Basso back to the other favorites, and reeled in the attack. Only on the final climb, with 12 kms to go, did Basso and CSC have to give up, but Basso showed his class by limiting the time loss. Basso is now in second, 50 seconds off from the pink jersey.

With a demonstration of power, Basso succeeded in capturing the pink jersey on the first real mountain stage of the Giro. Setting a very high pace, Basso dropped everyone but Paolo Savoldelli who succeeded in sprinting past Basso to take the win. Both Simoni and Savoldelli attempted to attack, but were brought back by a flying Ivan Basso.

”I felt really strong today. I wasn’t giving much thought as to who was positioned where, but just made sure to keep as fast a pace as possible, as we hit the Passo Duran climb. This turned out to be the right strategy, and I could see, that not many were able to keep up with me. I had great legs today, so I launched several attacks in order to drop my competitors. Today I showed, that I’m a rider capable of pulling off a serious attack under the right circumstances,” said Basso.

”It’s a dream come true for me and my team with this pink leader’s jersey, but I choose to be very humble about the situation. There are still a lot of tough stages left, and the race is far from over. Today many riders had an actual off-day, but that can happen to everyone in a big stage race – including myself. Now we have achieved an important goal, but of course I’ll attack again, if I feel as strong as I did today.”

Yet another flat stage, and yet another win for Robbie McEwen, who has demonstrated himself to be the superior sprinter of this yearäs Giro.

From Team-CSC.com:

With about 20 kilometers to go, Team CSC had to work hard when one of the spokes on Ivan Basso’s wheel broke. Several riders in the peloton had to come off the road in order to avoid a crash and Basso was forced to change his wheel. At the same time he lost radio contact with his team mates.

”It probably looked worse than it actually was. Ivan pushed his mike too hard, so at first his team mates couldn’t hear him. However, we quickly got the team organized and escorted him back to the peloton without problems,” said Bjarne Riis after the 211-kilometer stage.

Unfortunately, I’ll be away thursday-friday, so will not be able to keep the site updated tommorrow.

Recently had the “Tour de France Quiz Book” by John DT White pop in through my mailslot. A compact piece at 168 pages, it is the perfect reading companion for a warm July afternoon while waiting for the peloton to reel in that doomed breakaway. With more than 1200 questions - and answers - the book compiles more than enough knowledge to challenge even the most sage cycling enthusiast. The questions are grouped by nationality, discipline, eras, winners, runners-up, riders, teams and vary from the fairly easy to the fiendishly difficult (and despite his short Tour history, even Ivan Basso gets mentioned in there). The only downside of the book is the lack of a table of contents for the different quiz sections, which makes it less useful as a reference book than it could have been (as it is, it remains a gold mine, but takes a bit of work to use for this purpose). As a quiz book on the Tour, though, it is outstanding - and if you wish to stump your cycling friends, this book is probably worth getting. Those long mass-sprint stages while we wait for Basso to demolish them in the mountains need not be boring any more…