Ivan Basso

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Ivan Basso (born November 26, 1977) is a former Italian professional cyclist who last raced with UCI ProTeam Tinkoff-Saxo. Basso, nicknamed Ivan the Terrible, is considered among the best professional riders in the early 21st century, and is considered one of the strongest stage racers. He is the double winner of the Giro d'Italia, having won the 2006 edition and 2010 edition of the Italian Grand Tour while riding for Team CSC in 2006 and for Liquigas in 2010. However, in 2007 Basso admitted he planned to use doping and suspended during two years. His suspension ended on October 24, 2008, and he returned to racing two days later at the Japan Cup, where he placed a third behind Damiano Cunego and Giovanni Visconti. He then returned to racing on his home tour, and in 2010 he won the second Giro d'Italia while riding Liquigas-Domo, winning two stages along the way.

Video Ivan Basso

Biography

He was born in Gallarate, in the province of Varese in Lombardy. There he grew up next to Claudio Chiappucci, the former three-time winner at the Tour de France who was suspended for two years after being found guilty of doping several times.

As an amateur, he finished second in the 1995 Junior World Championships and his first major result was to win the U-23 World Championship in 1998. In his youth he competed with fellow Italian Giuliano Figueras and especially Danilo Di Luca who proclaimed he would have won U-23 World Championship itself if not for team tactics. Before Basso could become a professional, his parents wanted to see him complete his Technical Geometry study. He became professional with Riso Scotti-Vinavil's team from Davide Boifava 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 someday. In 2000, with a team now called Amica Chips-Tacconi Sport, he won his first professional win at the 2000 Regio-Tour.

Promising results

In 2001, he moved to Fassa Bortolo under the guidance of sporting director Giancarlo Ferretti. He scored some important victories in 2001, and he made his Tour de France debut in the 2001 edition. His attack on the Bastille Day stage prompted five break-away men to ride for victory, but Basso fell on a mountain descent and was forced to leave the race.

The next two years without a win meant, though he had a promising rides at the Tour de France. In the 2002 edition of the Tour de France, Basso finished 11th overall and won the classification of young riders, the award was awarded to the best riders placed in the general classification under the age of 25.

He was impressed again in the 2003 Tour, finishing seventh overall despite receiving little help from Fassa Bortolo's team-mates, having dedicated their efforts in the first part of the race to help Alessandro Petacchi win the four stages, had to withdraw due to poisoning food, leaving only two riders to help Basso. Despite good results as the best Italian racer stationed in Tour de France, he was behind Italian team-mate Dario Frigo in order to peck Fassa Bortolo for Italy's biggest race, Giro. After a promising start to Fassa Bortolo's career, Basso's relationship with Ferretti became bleak. Basso failed to respond well to the "iron sergeant" management method who thought Basso did not win enough races.

Regardless of the individual stages of the trial time, Basso lost just over a minute to Lance Armstrong's winner at the 2003 Tour, and he did not lack the new team's offer. Despite strong rumors that sent him to the US Postal Service team, Ivan Basso moved to Team CSC for the 2004 season, under the guidance of team manager Bjarne Riis. In the CSC Team, Basso will fill the role of team captain, whom Tyler Hamilton left vacant in Danish outfits, with the primary goal of being a challenger in the Tour de France. The weakness of Ivan Basso was the time of trial and before the 2004 season he and his teammate Carlos Sastre trained at the wind tunnel at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to improve their aerodynamic position on the bike. Ivan Basso's trial time skills were one of the main points of improvement over the following years.

Heir apparent

Basso looked impressive at the 2004 Tour de France, winning stage 12 ahead of eventual winner Lance Armstrong, his first victory since 2001. His overall time was aggrieved by a relatively poor test result: he only finished 8th on stage 16 testing time to Alpe d 'Huez, where he was captured and passed by Armstrong, and the 6th in a 19 time trial. Overall, he lost a combination of 5 minutes and 13 seconds in two stages. The loss of time at the last effective trial sent Basso to third place behind Andreas KlÃƒÆ'Ã‚Â¶den, and Basso finished 6:40 behind the overall winner Armstrong. He ended the season, participating with the Italian national team at the 2004 World Championships in Verona, helping Italian colleague Luca Paolini get a Bronze Medal. Out of season, the CSC team is in a financial struggle. Even when Bjarne Riis let the rider who receives a superior offer from the other team leave, Basso has not moved on to the Discovery Channel team even though a more economically advantageous contract has been 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 his memory, as his primary goal for the season. By focusing on winning Giro and Tour, he will fight the trend of only aiming for one big game of the season, the tactic that was most successfully succeeded by Lance Armstrong. Basso wore a pink jersey as leader of the General standings in Giro d'Italia until a severe stomach problem caused him to lose the lead at stage 13 on Passo delle Erbe. He lost 40 minutes again during the 14th stage, a mountain stage that included the Stelvio Pass, and thus effectively ended his efforts for the overall award. No longer dangerous to other major riders, Basso decided to continue the race with the goal of winning individual stages. He managed to achieve this goal in stage 17, the stage of the mountain. He also won the 18th stage, time trial, in front of teammate David Zabriskie, showing improvements he made in this area.

At the 2005 Tour de France, he started relatively weakly on stage 10, the first stage of the horse race, where he trailed the front-group one minute. But for the rest of the race, Ivan Basso once again became the only rider to compete against Lance Armstrong in the mountains, and at times he tried to squeeze the eventual winner by attack. Basso is still weaker in his time trials, although he has improved significantly when compared to 2004. He lost a 3:47 collective during the two-stage trials, as Basso put the whole 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 28th overall ranking at Giro 2005, Basso returned to Giro in 2006 in order to win. After a good performance in the pilot phase 1, Basso and his CSC team won the fifth stage, the team time test. Basso's first stage solo win came at the 8th stage, the first mountain peak of Giro, where he avenged an attack by Damiano Cunego and climbed to the finish by himself. The victory also allows him to gain enough time on his rival to place him in the leader's pink jersey for the first time at Giro 2006, the jersey he will hold for the remaining 13 stages.

Stage 11 is a long and flat individual test of time in which Basso finished second, losing only to former two-time World Time Trial Championship winner Jan Ullrich, beating riders like Italian national time champion Marco Pinotti. During the last week of Giro 2006, Basso became completely dominant, as he consistently defeated his main rivals for the General classification, and won stages 16 and 20 along the way. His victory at Stage 20, where he rode a solo victory on the final ascent to Aprica after rising away from rival Gilberto Simoni, was famous when he, already convinced of his victory, took out his Santiago photo, his newborn son, and held it high as he traversed finish line. Santiago Basso had been born the day before, and Basso had not seen his son in the flesh, given a picture just hours before the stage began. When rival Simoni rolled over the line for more than a minute behind Basso, he was obviously annoyed at being beaten and made a statement that Basso's dominance at Giro that year was "extra-terrestrial." Basso finished 9 minutes 18 seconds ahead of second rider, JosÃƒ Â© Â© Enrique GutiÃƒ Â© Ãƒ Â© rrez, the biggest winning margin in Giro d'Italia since 1965. After the last stage of the Giro d'Italia 2006, Basso stated that he would continue his pre- -a season to also ride the Tour de France 2006.

OperaciÃƒÆ'Ã‚Â³n Puerto and 2006 Tour de France

On June 30, 2006, the Tour de France management announced at a press conference that a number of motorists, including Ivan Basso, would not ride in the 2006 Tour de France due to blood doping rumors stemming from OperaciÃƒÂ³n Puerto's investigations in Spain. According to the investigation, Basso is suspected of being given blood doping by Dr. Fuentes at a clinic in Spain. No formal charges were filed, but after an agreement between the managers of all ProTour teams, any suspected doping rider will not be allowed to start the ProTour race. This forced CSC to remove Basso from their squad for the 2006 Tour.

Speculation in the Italian press suggested that Basso should not be banned from joining the Discovery Channel team. The CSC team describes this suggestion only as a rumor. Later, CSC manager Bjarne Riis reported that it was unlikely that Basso could return to the CSC without proving that he had no contact with Dr. Fuentes, because the contract Basso determined that he could not receive medical help from outside. Riis admits that it may not be possible for Basso to prove beyond a reasonable doubt. Rumor also talks about Basso moving to Team Milram or Barloworld (non-ProTour team). The process of the Italian National Olympic Committee (CONI) began in late August 2006.

From CSC to Team Discovery Channel

On October 18, 2006, the CSC Team announced that its contract has been terminated by mutual agreement. On October 27, 2006, Basso was released due to any involvement in Operation Puerto activities by the committee, due to insufficient evidence.

On November 9, 2006 Ivan Basso announced he was joining Lance Armstrong's former team, the Discovery Channel. The announcement was made in Austin, Texas, and Basso joined the team on December 3, 2006 for the first unofficial training camp. Basso drove Levi Leipheimer during the Tour of California 2007, and also ran Tirreno-Adriatico, where he fell.

Puerto Case reopened

On April 24, 2007, Basso was suspended by the Discovery Channel when the Italian National Olympic Committee (CONI) reopened its case. On April 30, 2007 Team Discovery Channel announced that Basso would be excluded from his contract. Basso was asked to leave the team on the grounds of "personal reasons related to the investigation reopened by the Italian National Olympic Committee (CONI)." Basso met with General Manager of Discovery Channel Team, Bill Stapleton, and Johan Bruyneel, Team Director, and both agreed to allow Basso to leave the team. While still claiming to have never really been involved in blood doping, Basso admitted contacting Dr.'s clinic. Fuentes with the intention to perform blood doping.

Basso appeared before the Italian National Olympic Committee (CONI) on May 2, 2007. On May 7, 2007, Basso admitted his involvement with a drug scandal to the Italian National Olympic Committee (CONI). In a press conference he later declared it was "trying doping", and that while he was not really doping, he was "fully aware that doping is tantamount to doping" and that "[he will] serve [his] suspension and then back to the race. "

On June 15, 2007, Basso received a two-year ban. The time he has spent under team suspension while driving a CSC and a temporary suspension since leaving Discovery is considered which means he is banned until October 25, 2008.

Back after suspension

On his return, Ivan Basso signed a two-year contract with Liquigas, his first Japanese Cup race on October 26, 2008. He went on to third after Damiano Cunego and Giovanni Visconti. In April 2009 he claimed an overall victory in the Italian stage race Giro del Trentino. He then competed in his main goal for this year's Giro d'Italia, where he finished fifth behind the eventual winners Denis Menchov, Danilo Di Luca, fellow Liquigas player Franco Pellizotti and 2008 Tour de France winner Carlos Sastre. He also ranks 4th in 2009 Vuelta a EspaÃƒÆ' Ã‚ Â± a behind Alejandro Valverde, Samuel SÃƒÆ'Ã‚Â¡nchez, and Cadel Evans.

In 2010, Basso aims to win the second Giro d'Italia, leading Team Liquigas with teammate Vincenzo Nibali. Despite having a calm start to the race, he won stage 15 of the Giro d'Italia 2010 at the top of Monte Zoncolan, after his Liquigas team had set the pace for about 150 km to catch the breakaway. After Stage 19, he led the general classification as a result of the previous ascent of David Arroyo, and held it until the end of the race. This has resulted in its second Giro win since 2006.

Basso then focused on the Tour where he tried to win the Giro and Tour during the same year but he finally struggled through the last week, completing 32.

In 2011, Basso missed Giro to focus on the Tour. After a good start during the first two weeks of fifth overall sitting, Basso fought in the 16th and 17th stage after being dropped off in the last line. He then finished 7 overall. In 2012, Basso started the season with a calm look focused on Giro d'Italia, but only completed the 5th overall.

In August 2014, it was announced that Basso would join Team Tinkoff-Saxo from 2015 with a two-year contract.

In July 2015, Basso was diagnosed with testicular cancer and immediately resigned from the Tour de France to seek treatment in Italy. Basso received support from a number of people including Lance Armstrong. Basso made an announcement to the media in terms: "I have a bad announcement to give to you guys," Basso said. "In stage 5, I had a very small accident but in that accident I touched my testis in the saddle and for a few days I felt a little pain, yesterday we talked to the doctor from Tour de France and we decided to go to make a special analysis in the hospital and the examination gave me bad news.I have a small cancer in the left testis. "

In September 2015 Tinkoff-Saxo insists that Basso has fully recovered after undergoing surgery at Milan and that he will be able to race again. But the following month after Basso had a talk with the team, it was announced that he would retire from the competition, while remaining with Tinkoff-Saxo in a management role.

Maps Ivan Basso

Personal life

Basso lives in Cassano Magnago in Gallarate, Italy with his wife and four children.

He has now bought land in his hometown to start a blueberry farm where he hopes to hire locals as well as make investments for his retirement from cycling because the future of the European economy is uncertain. Basso has begun to plant; his farm is called "Il Borgo" or "village".