Ivan Basso

With only a stage to go, only an accident or an assassin's bullet will prevent Italian Ivan Basso of team CSC from winning his first grand Tour, the 2006 Giro d"Italia.

Basso, Lance Armstrong's friend and the "Anointed One" to win the Tour de France this July, was leading by an enormous 9.18 minutes over second place Jose Gutierrez of PHONAK going into the final stage to Milan. Coming in third was 2-time Giro winner Gilberto Simoni. Defending champion Paolo Salvodelli, who wowed everybody in the first few days of the Giro, fell slowly from the overall to allergy problems at 5th place, 19 minutes adrift.

Basso won the U-23 World Championships in 1998 and turned pro in 1999 for RISSO SCOTTI but moved to AMICA CHIPS the following year. From 2001 to 2003, he rode for the Italian super team FASSO BARTOLO, which was a team oriented for one day classics races and which had sprinter Alessandor Petacchi as the team leader.

But in the Tour the France, he was a revelation and he finished 11th and 6th in 2002 and 2003, respectively, in spite riding in a support role for Petacchi. But then FASSA's team director, Giancarlo Ferretti, felt that he was not justifying his big salary with enough wins, so he let him go. And that was all that Basso needed, a new environment.

The new environment was brought upon by the leadership of the 1996 Tour de France winner, Bjarne Riis and hijs team CSC. Riis, who is known for not lacking in confidence when he was a rider and a director, was known for resurrecting the careers of Bobby Julich and Tyler Hamilton. Before the 1996 Tour, Riis had made it known to his then team, TELEKOM that he'd topple 5-time defending Tour champion Miguel Indurain, which he did.

Whatever Riis had whispered in Bassos' ear must have worked for only Basso could go toe to toe with Lance in the 2004 Tour. Again in 2005, it was only Basso who could attack Lance and go with Lance in the high mountains.

Now, riding a 3-week Tour is hard enough but riding two in one season to win can be detrimental to a cyclist's performance in one tour. Maybe that's the reason why Lance never rode more than one tour the last seven years. The last cyclist to win the Giro-Tour double was the late great climber, Marco Pantani in 1998. But the 1998 season had an asterisk about it with the FESTINA doping scandal written all over that year. So, in sporting sense, we have to go back to the 1992-1993 season when Miguel Indurain won the Giro-Tour double twice in a row. With the 2006 Giro virtually in the bag, Basso has a great opportunity to go to places where his friend Lance never dared to go. Lance's team, DISCOVERY CHANNEL, has been chasing Basso's signature for this year but when Riis was able to wrangle a few million euros from CSC, he immediately reworked Basso's contract.

Basso still has a month to recuperate from his efforts of the Giro. If he wins the Tour this July and never wins again, he'll have his name spoken with the greats.

Basso is the number favorite for the Tour. He's the best climber so far and his TT has improved a lot. In the only ITT in the Giro this year, he lost 28 seconds to rival Jan Ullrich, which is always a good sign since he can surely put minutes on Ullrich when the road starts to tilt upwards. But while Basso and Ullrich are the favorites, don't forget the name of Alejandro Valverde, my favorite to win this year!

Another Doping Scandal

Manolo Saiz, the outspoken team director or LIBERTY SEGUROS and the former team ONCE, was arrested and later released for doping charges. He was caught carrying a bag containing 60,000 euros and doping products. During the 1998 FESTINA doping scandal, he withdraw his team, ONCE (riders include ex-French superstar Laurent Jalabert), from the Tour.

It was reported also that LIBERTY SEGUROS, a US insurance company in Spain, have severed its ties with the team. Now, when will they ever learn?

Local Race Results:

Lawaan Talisay Crit (2005.5.21) 1.Nilo Barbalose 2. Jaybop Pagnanawon 3. Albert Basirgo.