The following is a translation of an interview with Micaela Basso (MB) brought in Tuttobici and republished on Ivanbasso.it in September 2005. It has been edited slightly for presentation on this site.
MB: We met each other in my downtown tanning parlor. It was a classic case of love at first sight.
Q: For Ivan or you?
MB: I would say for the both of us. After only two months Ivan asked me to marry him and after eight we were husband and wife. In the beginning I would have preferred to live together, but Ivan refused. When he assumes responsibility he wants to do it in the right manner. And this is one of the things that I like most about him.
Q: Ivan is loved by his teammates, and liked by the fans, conquering everyone with his grace, innate kindness and sweetness. But is he really like this in his private life?
MB: He is exactly as you see him. Nothing more or less. Naturally, not being a machine, also he is worried at times, anxious, but he has the most beautiful character. He is naturally calm and good, sweet, very reserved – not with me however.
Q: How so?
MB: With me he speaks, speaks a lot. About everything. Sometimes until two in the morning, if he can. At times, before Domitilla was born, he would wake up in the middle of the night, and he would get me up because he wanted to tell me something that he had thought and that he wanted to tell me right away. Ivan is this way. He must tell me everything. He explains to me. If we take a trip and we stay in the car three or four hours, he speaks from the beginning to the end. He interrupts himself only if he receives a call.
Q: But when he is far away for training camps or for races, what do you do?
MB: We telephone each other. Very often. He calls me many times a day.
Q: Even when he is at the Tour or the Giro?
MB: Always.
Q: He calls you, as if he was your telephone correspondent during the last Tour de France, for example?
MB: The first telephone call of the day arrives in the morning – it is a good day. He tells me how he slept, how he feels, he asks me about Domitilla and then he goes to have breakfast with the team.
Q: And Domitilla goes to the phone to speak with dad?
MB: It depends if she wants to or not. You know, the kids have a strange relationship with the phone. When he speaks with her however she might not stop. At the Tour she was constantly asking him: “Dad, bring me a little lion.†He was tormented.
Q: And how did Ivan respond?
MB: He would have done anything to bring one to her.
Q: Are you resentful in the evenings?
MB: No, Micaela says smiling. As soon as breakfast is over, before climbing on the bike, he gives me a call and then another just before the stage departs. A simple hello, but he always does it for me.
Q: Does he also call you while in the race?
MB: When he is in a race, no.
Thanks to Chris Bright for the translation. Any errors are, of course, mine.