Ivan Basso (born 26 November 1977) is an
ItalianItaly , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its northern, Alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia...
professional road bicycle racer who is currently racing with Italian
UCIUnion Cycliste Internationale is a cycling association that oversees competitive cycling events internationally. It is the world governing body for jurisdiction in the sport of cycling. The UCI is based in Aigle, Switzerland...
pro tour team
LiquigasTeam Liquigas is an Italian professional road bicycle racing team in the UCI ProTour. The current title sponsor is Liquigas, a provider of liquified gas products in Italy...
. Basso, nicknamed Ivan the Terrible, is among the best mountain riders in the professional field of the 2000s, and is considered one of the strongest stage race riders. He is a winner of the
Giro d'ItaliaThe 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. It is one of the three Grand Tours, and is part of the UCI World Ranking calendar...
, having won the
2006 editionThe 2006 Giro d'Italia, the 89th running of the race, was held from 6 May to 28 May 2006. It covered beginning in the Belgian mining town of Seraing and ending in Milan. Italian riders such as Ivan Basso, Damiano Cunego, and defending champion Paolo Savoldelli vied to win their national Grand...
of the Italian
Grand TourIn 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 Vuelta a España - Tour of Spain In road bicycle racing, a Grand Tour refers to one of the three...
whilst riding for
Team CSCTeam Saxo Bank is a professional cycling team from Denmark which competes in the road bicycle racing series the UCI ProTour...
. However, in 2007 Basso admitted he was planning to use
dopingIn sports, the use of performance-enhancing drugs is commonly referred to by the disparaging 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...
and was suspended for two years. His suspension ended on October 24, 2008, and he returned to racing two days later in the
Japan CupThe 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.- Past winners :...
, where he placed a close third behind
Damiano CunegoDamiano 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.
Biography
He was born in
GallarateGallarate is a city of Lombardy, northern Italy, in the Province of Varese. It has a population of some 50,000.It is the junction of railways to Varese, Laveno and Arona . Some 10 kilometers to the west are the electric works of Vizzola, where 23,000 hp are derived from the river Ticino...
, in the
province of VareseThe Province of Varese is a province in the Lombardy region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Varese....
in
LombardyLombardy 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...
. There he grew up next door to
Claudio ChiappucciClaudio Chiappucci is an Italian former professional cyclist. He was three times on the podium of the Tour de France general classification - 2nd in 1990, 3rd in 1991 and 2nd again in 1992....
, a former three-time stage winner in the
Tour de FranceThe Tour de France is an annual bicycle race that covers approximately throughout France and bordering countries. The race lasts three weeks and attracts cyclists from around the world. The race is broken into day-long segments, called stages. Individual times to finish each stage are totalled to...
who later retired 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 FiguerasGiuliano 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 LucaDanilo Di Luca is an Italian professional road racing cyclist who most recently had been riding for the UCI Professional Continental team . He is currently serving a suspension following a positive doping test during the 2009 Giro d'Italia...
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 BoifavaDavide 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'ItaliaThe 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. It 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.
Promising results
In 2001, he moved to Fassa Bortolo under the guidance of sporting director
Giancarlo FerrettiGiancarlo 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 editionThe 2001 Tour de France was relatively difficult, with a number of heavy mountain stages, a team time trial and a climbing time trial. France was ridden 'clockwise', and thus the Alps were visited before the Pyrenees. The Tour started in France, but in the first week Belgium was visited as well...
. His attack on the
Bastille DayBastille Day is the French national holiday, celebrated on 14 July each year. In France, it is called Fête Nationale in official parlance, or more 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 editionThe 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 jerseyNumerous 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 classificationThe 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.
He impressed again in the
2003 TourThe 2003 Tour de France started and ended in Paris. Lasting from July 5 to July 27 the race covered 3,350 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 PetacchiAlessandro Petacchi is an Italian professional road racing cyclist for UCI Professional Continental team .-Career:...
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 FrigoDario 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 trialAn 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 RiisBjarne Lykkegård Riis , nicknamed the Eagle from Herning , is a Danish former professional road bicycle racer who won the 1996 Tour de France, and is now the team owner and manager of Danish UCI ProTour outfit Team Saxo Bank...
. At Team CSC, Basso was to fill the role as team captain, which
Tyler HamiltonTyler Hamilton is a former American professional road bicycle racer and Olympic gold medalist, whose career and reputation were repeatedly marred by doping scandals. He counts a 2008 U.S. National Championship and a gold medal from the 2004 Olympic games among his palmarès...
had left vacant at the
DanishDenmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe and the senior member of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries; southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and it is bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark borders both the Baltic and the North Sea...
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 SastreCarlos Sastre Candil is a Spanish professional road bicycle racer and champion of the 2008 Tour de France. Sastre [pronounced SASS-tray] rides for UCI Professional Continental team Cervélo TestTeam...
trained in a
wind tunnelA wind tunnel is a research tool used in aerodynamic research. It is used 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 TechnologyThe 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 research...
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
Basso looked impressive in the
2004 Tour de FranceThe 2004 Tour de France was the 91st, taking place from July 3 to July 25, 2004. It consisted of 20 stages over 3429 km.Lance Armstrong became the first to win six Tours de France....
, winning stage 12 ahead of eventual winner
Lance ArmstrongLance Edward Armstrong is an American professional road racing cyclist who rides for UCI ProTeam . 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'HuezAlpe 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.-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 KlödenAndreas Klöden is a German professional road bicycle racer for UCI ProTeam . His major achievements include a bronze medal at the 2000 Olympic Games and the 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 ChampionshipsThe 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
VeronaVerona is a city in Veneto, northern Italy, one of the seven provincial capitals in the region. It is one of the main tourist destinations in north-eastern Italy, thanks to its artistic heritage, several annual fairs, shows and operas, such as the lyrical season in the Arena, the ancient...
, helping fellow Italian
Luca PaoliniLuca Paolini is an Italian road bicycle racer who rides for UCI Professional Continental team Acqua & Sapone-Caffè Mokambo...
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 ChannelDiscovery 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'ItaliaThe 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 rosaThe 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 PassThe Passo dello Stelvio , 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 ....
, 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 ZabriskieDavid 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 five times...
, demonstrating the improvement he had made in this area.
At the
2005 Tour de FranceThe 2005 Tour de France was the 92nd Tour de France, taking place from July 2 to July 24, 2005. It comprised 21 stages over 3607 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 trialA 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 CunegoDamiano 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.