Ivan Basso
Encyclopedia
Ivan Basso is an Italian
professional road bicycle racer who is currently racing with UCI ProTeam . Basso, nicknamed Ivan the Terrible, is among the best mountain riders in the professional field in the 21st century, and is considered one of the strongest stage race riders. He is a double winner of the Giro d'Italia
, having won the 2006 edition
and the 2010 edition of the Italian Grand Tour
whilst riding for Team CSC
in 2006 and for Liquigas in 2010. However, in 2007 Basso admitted he was planning to use doping
and was suspended for two years. His suspension ended on October 24, 2008, and he returned to racing two days later in the Japan Cup
, where he placed a close third behind Damiano Cunego
and Giovanni Visconti
.
, in the province of Varese
in Lombardy
. There he grew up next door to Claudio Chiappucci
, a former three-time stage winner in the Tour de France
who was suspended for two years after being proven guilty of doping several times.
As an amateur, he finished second in the 1995 junior World Championships and his first big result was winning the U-23 World Championships in 1998. In his youth he fiercely competed with fellow Italian riders Giuliano Figueras
and especially Danilo Di Luca
who proclaimed he would have won the U-23 World Championship himself had it not been for the team tactics. Before Basso could turn professional, his parents wanted to see him finish his Technical Geometry studies. He turned professional with Davide Boifava
's Riso Scotti-Vinavil team in 1999, where he rode his first Giro d'Italia
. He did not finish the three-week race, but he made it a priority to win it some day. In 2000, with the team now called Amica Chips-Tacconi Sport, he won his first professional victories in the 2000 Regio-Tour
.
. He scored several notable victories in 2001, and he made his Tour de France debut in the 2001 edition
. His attack on the Bastille Day
stage prompted a five man break-away which rode for the victory, but Basso crashed on a mountain descent and was forced to abandon the race.
His next two years were devoid of significant wins, even though he had promising rides in the Tour de France. In the 2002 edition
of the Tour de France, Basso finished 11th overall and won the white jersey
, the award presented to the best-placed rider in the general classification
under the age of 25.
He impressed again in the 2003 Tour
, finishing seventh overall in spite of receiving little help from his Fassa Bortolo team-mates who, after dedicating their efforts in the first part of the race to help Alessandro Petacchi
win four stages, had to pull out due to food poisoning, leaving only two riders to help Basso. Despite his good results as the best placed Italian rider in the Tour de France, he was behind fellow Italian teammate Dario Frigo
in the Fassa Bortolo pecking order for the biggest race in Italy, the Giro. After the promising start to his Fassa Bortolo career, Basso's relationship with Ferretti turned sour. Basso failed to respond well to the management methods of the "iron sergeant" who thought Basso did not win enough races.
Apart from the individual time trial
stages, Basso had only lost around a single minute to winner Lance Armstrong in the 2003 Tour, and he was not short of new team offers. Despite strong rumors sending him to team U.S. Postal Service, Ivan Basso moved to Team CSC for the 2004 season, under guidance of team manager Bjarne Riis
. At Team CSC, Basso was to fill the role as team captain, which Tyler Hamilton
had left vacant at the Danish
outfit, with the main aim to be a challenger in the Tour de France. Ivan Basso's weakness was the time trial and before the 2004 season he and teammate Carlos Sastre
trained in a wind tunnel
at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
to improve their aerodynamic positioning on the bike. The time trial skill of Ivan Basso was one of the main points of improvements over the next years.
Basso looked impressive in the 2004 Tour de France
, winning stage 12 ahead of eventual winner Lance Armstrong
, his first victory since 2001. His overall time was hurt by relatively poor time trial results: he only finished 8th on the stage 16 time trial up the mountain Alpe d'Huez
, where he was caught and passed by Armstrong, and 6th in the stage 19 time trial. In all, he lost a combined 5 minutes and 13 seconds in the two stages. His time loss on the last time trial effectively sent Basso down to third place behind Andreas Klöden
, and Basso finished 6:40 behind overall winner Armstrong. He ended the season, participating with the Italian national team in the 2004 World Championships
in Verona
, helping fellow Italian Luca Paolini
get a Bronze Medal. In the off-season, Team CSC was in a financial struggle. Even as Bjarne Riis let riders who received superior offers from other teams leave, Basso did not move to team Discovery Channel
even though an economically more lucrative contract was proposed.
January 2005 saw the death of Basso's mother, who died after battling cancer. Basso went on to focus on the 2005 Giro d'Italia
, in her memory, as his main aim for that season. By both focusing on winning the Giro and the Tour, he was going against the trend of only aiming for one big race a season, a tactic most notably employed successfully by Lance Armstrong. Basso wore the leader's jersey, the maglia rosa
, in the Giro until severe stomach problems caused him to lose the lead on stage 13. He lost another 40 minutes during the 14th stage, a mountain stage which included the Stelvio Pass
, and thus effectively ended his bid for overall honors. No longer dangerous to the other main riders, Basso decided to continue in the race with the objective of winning individual stages. He did manage to achieve this goal at stage 17, a mountain stage. He also won the 18th stage, a time trial, ahead of team mate David Zabriskie
, demonstrating the improvement he had made in this area.
At the 2005 Tour de France
, he started out comparatively weakly on stage 10, the first mountain stage of the race, where he trailed the front group by a minute. But for the rest of the race, Ivan Basso was once again the only rider to keep up with the race leader Lance Armstrong in the mountains, and on occasion he tried to pressure the eventual winner by going on the attack. Basso was still weaker in the time trials, although he had improved significantly when compared to 2004. He lost a collective 3:47 over two time trial stages, as Basso placed second overall in the Tour, 4:40 behind Lance Armstrong. During the 2005 Tour de France, Basso signed a new three-year contract with Team CSC.
. Basso's first solo stage victory came on the 8th stage, the first mountaintop finish of the Giro, where he countered an attack by Damiano Cunego
and rode to the finish by himself. That victory also allowed him to gain enough time on his rivals to put him in the maglia rosa leader's jersey for the first time in the 2006 Giro, a jersey which he would hold on to for the remaining 13 stages.
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
professional road bicycle racer who is currently racing with UCI ProTeam . Basso, nicknamed Ivan the Terrible, is among the best mountain riders in the professional field in the 21st century, and is considered one of the strongest stage race riders. He is a double winner of the Giro d'Italia
Giro d'Italia
The Giro d'Italia , also simply known as The Giro, is a long distance road bicycle racing stage race for professional cyclists held over three weeks in May/early June in and around Italy. The Giro is one of the three Grand Tours , and is part of the UCI World Ranking calendar...
, having won the 2006 edition
2006 Giro d'Italia
The 2006 Giro d'Italia was the 89th running of the Giro d'Italia, one of cycling's Grand Tours. It was held from 6 May to 28 May 2006, and covered , beginning in the Belgian mining town of Seraing and ending in Milan...
and the 2010 edition of the Italian Grand Tour
Grand Tour (cycling)
In road bicycle racing, a Grand Tour refers to one of the three major European professional cycling stage races:* Tour de France – Tour of France , held in July* Giro d'Italia – Tour of Italy , held in May...
whilst riding for Team CSC
Team CSC
Team Saxo Bank-SunGard is a professional cycling team from Denmark. It competes in the UCI ProTour. The team is owned and managed by former Tour de France winner Bjarne Riis, under the management of his company Riis Cycling. The sponsor is a Danish investment bank.Founded for 1998 Team home – Jack...
in 2006 and for Liquigas in 2010. However, in 2007 Basso admitted he was planning to use doping
Doping (sport)
The use of performance-enhancing drugs in sport is commonly referred to by the term "doping", particularly by those organizations that regulate competitions. The use of performance enhancing drugs is mostly done to improve athletic performance. This is why many sports ban the use of performance...
and was suspended for two years. His suspension ended on October 24, 2008, and he returned to racing two days later in the Japan Cup
Japan Cup (cycling)
The Japan Cup is a road bicycle racing one-day event held each October in Japan since 1992. The Japan Cup is a popular and early season stop on the UCI Asia Tour and often includes several teams from the UCI ProTour. It is currently part of the UCI Asia Tour....
, where he placed a close third behind Damiano Cunego
Damiano Cunego
Damiano Cunego is an Italian professional road racing cyclist who rides for the Italian UCI ProTeam . His biggest wins are the 2004 Giro d'Italia, the 2008 Amstel Gold Race, and the Giro di Lombardia in 2004, 2007, 2008. He finished second in the UCI Road World Championships in 2008 and in the...
and Giovanni Visconti
Giovanni Visconti (cyclist)
Giovanni Visconti is an Italian professional road racing cyclist for UCI Professional Continental team . Visconti won the Italian National Championship road race on 1 July 2007, beating Paolo Bossoni and Davide Rebellin at the end in a sprint. At 12 km to go, Rebellin made his move...
.
Biography
He was born in GallarateGallarate
Gallarate is a city and comune of Lombardy, northern Italy, in the Province of Varese. It has a population of some 51,700....
, in the province of Varese
Province of Varese
The Province of Varese is a province in the Lombardy region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Varese but its largest city is Busto Arsizio....
in Lombardy
Lombardy
Lombardy is one of the 20 regions of Italy. The capital is Milan. One-sixth of Italy's population lives in Lombardy and about one fifth of Italy's GDP is produced in this region, making it the most populous and richest region in the country and one of the richest in the whole of Europe...
. There he grew up next door to Claudio Chiappucci
Claudio Chiappucci
Claudio Chiappucci is a retired Italian professional cyclist. He was on the podium three times in the Tour de France general classification - second in 1990, third in 1991 and second again in 1992.-Career:...
, a former three-time stage winner in the Tour de France
Tour de France
The Tour de France is an annual bicycle race held in France and nearby countries. First staged in 1903, the race covers more than and lasts three weeks. As the best known and most prestigious of cycling's three "Grand Tours", the Tour de France attracts riders and teams from around the world. The...
who was suspended for two years after being proven guilty of doping several times.
As an amateur, he finished second in the 1995 junior World Championships and his first big result was winning the U-23 World Championships in 1998. In his youth he fiercely competed with fellow Italian riders Giuliano Figueras
Giuliano Figueras
Giuliano Figueras is an Italian former professional road bicycle racer. He turned professional in 1998 with Mapei team and won a stage of the Tour de Langkawi that year. In 1999 and 2000 Figueras had 7 wins including a stage of the Giro di Romandia. He rode for the Panaria-Fiordo team for 4 years...
and especially Danilo Di Luca
Danilo Di Luca
Danilo Di Luca is an Italian professional road racing cyclist who rode for numerous UCI Professional Continental teams throughout his career including Liquigas-Bianchi and . He holds victories in the Giro di Lombardia in 2001, the 2005 UCI ProTour and won both the Giro d'Italia and the spring...
who proclaimed he would have won the U-23 World Championship himself had it not been for the team tactics. Before Basso could turn professional, his parents wanted to see him finish his Technical Geometry studies. He turned professional with Davide Boifava
Davide Boifava
Davide Boifava is an Italian former professional road bicycle racer and cycling team manager.- Palmarès :1969...
's Riso Scotti-Vinavil team in 1999, where he rode his first Giro d'Italia
Giro d'Italia
The Giro d'Italia , also simply known as The Giro, is a long distance road bicycle racing stage race for professional cyclists held over three weeks in May/early June in and around Italy. The Giro is one of the three Grand Tours , and is part of the UCI World Ranking calendar...
. He did not finish the three-week race, but he made it a priority to win it some day. In 2000, with the team now called Amica Chips-Tacconi Sport, he won his first professional victories in the 2000 Regio-Tour
Regio-Tour
The Regio-Tour is a multi-stage road bicycle race held between France, Switzerland and Germany. It was first held in 1985 and since 2005 it has been organised as a 2.1 event on the UCI Europe Tour...
.
Promising results
In 2001, he moved to Fassa Bortolo under the guidance of sporting director Giancarlo FerrettiGiancarlo Ferretti
Giancarlo Ferretti is the former manager of the now-disbanded Italian professional road bicycle racing team Fassa Bortolo team, sponsored by the Italian cement company of the same name....
. He scored several notable victories in 2001, and he made his Tour de France debut in the 2001 edition
2001 Tour de France
The 2001 Tour de France was particularly difficult, having contained a 67-km long team time trial, two individual time trials and five mountain-top finishes on consecutive days, the second of which being the Chamrousse special category climb time trial. Thus, all the high-mountain stages were...
. His attack on the Bastille Day
Bastille Day
Bastille Day is the name given in English-speaking countries to the French National Day, which is celebrated on 14 July of each year. In France, it is formally called La Fête Nationale and commonly le quatorze juillet...
stage prompted a five man break-away which rode for the victory, but Basso crashed on a mountain descent and was forced to abandon the race.
His next two years were devoid of significant wins, even though he had promising rides in the Tour de France. In the 2002 edition
2002 Tour de France
The 2002 Tour de France started in Luxembourg on July 6, 2002, and ended in Paris on July 28. France was visited counter-clockwise, so the Pyrenees were there before the Alps...
of the Tour de France, Basso finished 11th overall and won the white jersey
Maillot blanc
Numerous cycling stage races award a white jersey to signify the current leader and overall winner of a certain competition. The most prominent of these is perhaps the Tour de France, where the jersey is known as the maillot blanc and is awarded to the best-placed rider under 26 years of age...
, the award presented to the best-placed rider in the general classification
General Classification
The general classification in bicycle racing is the category that tracks overall times for bicycle riders in multi-stage bicycle races...
under the age of 25.
2003 Tour de France
The 2003 Tour de France started and ended in Paris. Lasting from July 5 to July 27 the race covered 3,427.5 km , proceeding clockwise in twenty stages around France, including six major mountain stages...
, finishing seventh overall in spite of receiving little help from his Fassa Bortolo team-mates who, after dedicating their efforts in the first part of the race to help Alessandro Petacchi
Alessandro Petacchi
Alessandro Petacchi is an Italian professional road racing cyclist for .A specialist sprinter, Petacchi has won 51 grand tour stages with wins of the points jersey in the Giro d'Italia in 2004, the Vuelta a España in 2005 and the Tour de France in 2010.In 2007 Alessandro was banned from cycling...
win four stages, had to pull out due to food poisoning, leaving only two riders to help Basso. Despite his good results as the best placed Italian rider in the Tour de France, he was behind fellow Italian teammate Dario Frigo
Dario Frigo
Dario Frigo is a former professional road bicycle racer. Frigo gained notoriety in the 2005 Tour de France when, lying 52nd overall racing for Fassa Bortolo, he was arrested before stage 11 after French police found ten doses of EPO in his wife's car...
in the Fassa Bortolo pecking order for the biggest race in Italy, the Giro. After the promising start to his Fassa Bortolo career, Basso's relationship with Ferretti turned sour. Basso failed to respond well to the management methods of the "iron sergeant" who thought Basso did not win enough races.
Apart from the individual time trial
Individual time trial
An individual time trial is a road bicycle race in which cyclists race alone against the clock . There are also track-based time trials where riders compete in velodromes, and team time trials...
stages, Basso had only lost around a single minute to winner Lance Armstrong in the 2003 Tour, and he was not short of new team offers. Despite strong rumors sending him to team U.S. Postal Service, Ivan Basso moved to Team CSC for the 2004 season, under guidance of team manager Bjarne Riis
Bjarne Riis
Bjarne Lykkegård Riis , nicknamed The Eagle from Herning , is a Danish former professional road bicycle racer who placed first in the 1996 Tour de France, and is now the team owner and manager of Danish UCI ProTour outfit Team Saxo Bank Sungard...
. At Team CSC, Basso was to fill the role as team captain, which Tyler Hamilton
Tyler Hamilton
Tyler Hamilton is a former American professional road bicycle racer and former Olympic gold medalist. Hamilton became a professional cyclist in 1995, and during the 1999, 2000 and 2001 Tour de France was a teammate of Lance Armstrong who won those races.Hamilton appeared at the 2000 Summer...
had left vacant at the Danish
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
outfit, with the main aim to be a challenger in the Tour de France. Ivan Basso's weakness was the time trial and before the 2004 season he and teammate Carlos Sastre
Carlos Sastre
Carlos Sastre Candil is a retired Spanish professional road bicycle racer and champion of the 2008 Tour de France. Sastre rides in 2011 for UCI Professional Continental team...
trained in a wind tunnel
Wind tunnel
A wind tunnel is a research tool used in aerodynamic research to study the effects of air moving past solid objects.-Theory of operation:Wind tunnels were first proposed as a means of studying vehicles in free flight...
at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
to improve their aerodynamic positioning on the bike. The time trial skill of Ivan Basso was one of the main points of improvements over the next years.
Heir apparent
2004 Tour de France
The 2004 Tour de France was the 91st, taking place from July 3 to July 25, 2004. It consisted of 20 stages over 3391 km.Lance Armstrong became the first to win six Tours de France. Armstrong had been favored to win, his competitors seen as being German Jan Ullrich, Spaniards Roberto Heras and...
, winning stage 12 ahead of eventual winner Lance Armstrong
Lance Armstrong
Lance Edward Armstrong is an American former professional road racing cyclist who won the Tour de France a record seven consecutive times, after having survived testicular cancer. He is also the founder and chairman of the Lance Armstrong Foundation for cancer research and support...
, his first victory since 2001. His overall time was hurt by relatively poor time trial results: he only finished 8th on the stage 16 time trial up the mountain Alpe d'Huez
Alpe d'Huez
L'Alpe d'Huez is a ski resort at . It is a mountain pasture in the Central French Alps, in the commune of Huez, in the Isère département in the Rhône-Alpes region.-Tour de France:L'Alpe d'Huez is one of the main mountains in the Tour de France...
, where he was caught and passed by Armstrong, and 6th in the stage 19 time trial. In all, he lost a combined 5 minutes and 13 seconds in the two stages. His time loss on the last time trial effectively sent Basso down to third place behind Andreas Klöden
Andreas Klöden
Andreas Klöden is a German professional road bicycle racer for UCI ProTour team . His major achievements include a bronze medal at the 2000 Olympic Games and second place in the 2004 Tour de France and 2006 Tour de France...
, and Basso finished 6:40 behind overall winner Armstrong. He ended the season, participating with the Italian national team in the 2004 World Championships
World Cycling Championship
The UCI Road World Championships, often referred to as the World Cycling Championships, is the annual world championship for bicycle road racing organized by the Union Cycliste Internationale . The UCI Road World Championships include championships for elite men's road race and individual time trial...
in Verona
Verona
Verona ; German Bern, Dietrichsbern or Welschbern) is a city in the Veneto, northern Italy, with approx. 265,000 inhabitants and one of the seven chef-lieus of the region. It is the second largest city municipality in the region and the third of North-Eastern Italy. The metropolitan area of Verona...
, helping fellow Italian Luca Paolini
Luca Paolini
Luca Paolini is an Italian road bicycle racer who rides for UCI ProTeam . Paolini's home was searched in a doping investigation which was called Operazione Athena - however it appears that no evidence was found that led to any conviction of involvement in doping.- Major achievements...
get a Bronze Medal. In the off-season, Team CSC was in a financial struggle. Even as Bjarne Riis let riders who received superior offers from other teams leave, Basso did not move to team Discovery Channel
Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team
Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team was a United States-based professional road bicycle racing team. It was the continuation of the 2004 U.S. Postal Service Pro Cycling Team. Lance Armstrong, seven-time Tour de France winner, was its leader until July 2005...
even though an economically more lucrative contract was proposed.
January 2005 saw the death of Basso's mother, who died after battling cancer. Basso went on to focus on the 2005 Giro d'Italia
2005 Giro d'Italia
The 2005 Giro d'Italia, the 88th running of the race, was held from 7 May to 29 May 2005, consisting of 21 stages for a total of 3,417 km, ridden at an average speed of 37,375 km/h...
, in her memory, as his main aim for that season. By both focusing on winning the Giro and the Tour, he was going against the trend of only aiming for one big race a season, a tactic most notably employed successfully by Lance Armstrong. Basso wore the leader's jersey, the maglia rosa
Maglia rosa
The pink jersey is awarded to the leader of the General Classification at the Giro d'Italia. The leader of the GC is the rider who has the fastest time when all the stage results are added together, taking into account time bonuses for high finishes and intermediate sprints...
, in the Giro until severe stomach problems caused him to lose the lead on stage 13. He lost another 40 minutes during the 14th stage, a mountain stage which included the Stelvio Pass
Stelvio Pass
The Stelvio Pass , located in Italy, at 2757 m is the highest paved mountain pass in the Eastern Alps, and the second highest in the Alps, slightly below the Col de l'Iseran .-Location:...
, and thus effectively ended his bid for overall honors. No longer dangerous to the other main riders, Basso decided to continue in the race with the objective of winning individual stages. He did manage to achieve this goal at stage 17, a mountain stage. He also won the 18th stage, a time trial, ahead of team mate David Zabriskie
David Zabriskie
David Zabriskie is a professional road bicycle racer from the United States who rides for . His main strength is individual time trials and his career highlights include stage wins in all three Grand Tour stage races and winning the US National Time Trial Championship six times...
, demonstrating the improvement he had made in this area.
2005 Tour de France
The 2005 Tour de France was the 92nd Tour de France, taking place from July 2 to July 24, 2005. It comprised 21 stages over 3592.5 km, the winner's average speed was 41.654 km/h. The first stages were held in the département of the Vendée, for the third time in 12 years. The 2005 Tour was...
, he started out comparatively weakly on stage 10, the first mountain stage of the race, where he trailed the front group by a minute. But for the rest of the race, Ivan Basso was once again the only rider to keep up with the race leader Lance Armstrong in the mountains, and on occasion he tried to pressure the eventual winner by going on the attack. Basso was still weaker in the time trials, although he had improved significantly when compared to 2004. He lost a collective 3:47 over two time trial stages, as Basso placed second overall in the Tour, 4:40 behind Lance Armstrong. During the 2005 Tour de France, Basso signed a new three-year contract with Team CSC.
2006 Giro d'Italia
Following his overall rank of 28th in the 2005 Giro, Basso returned to the Giro in 2006 with the intention to win. Following a good performance in the stage 1 time trial, Basso and his CSC teammates won the 5th stage, a team time trialTeam time trial
A team time trial is a road-based bicycle race in which teams of cyclists race against the clock .Teams start at equal intervals, usually two, three or four minutes apart...
. Basso's first solo stage victory came on the 8th stage, the first mountaintop finish of the Giro, where he countered an attack by Damiano Cunego
Damiano Cunego
Damiano Cunego is an Italian professional road racing cyclist who rides for the Italian UCI ProTeam . His biggest wins are the 2004 Giro d'Italia, the 2008 Amstel Gold Race, and the Giro di Lombardia in 2004, 2007, 2008. He finished second in the UCI Road World Championships in 2008 and in the...
and rode to the finish by himself. That victory also allowed him to gain enough time on his rivals to put him in the maglia rosa leader's jersey for the first time in the 2006 Giro, a jersey which he would hold on to for the remaining 13 stages.