For a brief period in the early 2000s, Ivan Basso was the only one keeping up with Lance Armstrong in the mountains of the Tour. He looked like the heir apparent to the American. Nobody from the new generation was on his level, and it looked like the Tour was going to belong to Basso after Armstrong retired.
Every dynasty needs an antagonist, especially in sports. The Golden State Warriors had the Cleveland Cavaliers. The New England Patriots had the New York Giants. Bayern Munich has Borussia Dortmund. Lance Armstrong had Jan Ullrich. The last two names are controversial but all those July days spent watching the Tour in the early 2000s, rooting for your favorite, can’t be erased. After it became clear that Ullrich was battling his own demons and wouldn’t be able to challenge Armstrong anymore (after the 2003 Tour) a new antagonist emerged: Ivan Basso.
As it tends to happen in sports, things change very quickly. After the 2005 Tour Armstrong retired and it was all but certain that Ivan Basso was going to claim his first Tour in the following year. Instead, the Operacion Puerto would have him removed from the Tour, and later banned from the sport for two years during his prime.
The ban effectively prevented him from becoming one of the top all time greats. Still, he came back to win the 2010 Giro, which is a remarkable feat. Few riders have success after coming back from a two-year ban, let alone win a Grand Tour (GT).
Ivan Basso was born in the city of Gallarate, region of Lombardia, in 1977. Unlike no. 96, Fred de Bruyne, who excelled in the classics, Basso was a pure GT racer. His cycling prowess was clear from a young age. At 17, he won the silver medal in the Junior World Championships beating, for example, Rinaldo Nocentini and Iban Mayo. In 1998, at 20 years of age, he became the U23 World Champion, once again beating Nocentini. Danilo Di Luca rounded out the all-Italian podium. He turned pro in 1999, and immediately got his first start in the Giro. Things didn’t go well for the Italian in his home GT: he did not reach Milan.
Still, his first year as a pro with the Riso Scotti – Vinavil team was a huge success despite the lack of victories. Ivan Basso placed often in the top 10 of minor Italian classics and would even finish 6th in the HEW Cyclassics, a World Cup ranked race at the time.
In 2000, the Italian moved to the Amica Chips – Tacconi Sport team, and kept improving his results. He got his first wins as a pro: two stage wins in the Regio Tour, in Germany. These results alerted Fassa Bortolo to the potential of Basso, and the Italian outfit signed him for the 2001 season. This was another season of steady progress for the Italian. He rode the Tour de France for the first time, won some more races during the season and climbed on the second step of the podium in the 2001 Fléche Wallone, a race won by Belgian Rik Verbrugghe.
For the first time in is career he would not change teams for 2002, something that seems to have been beneficial for Basso. That year he achieved his first monument podium with a 3rd place in the Liége-Bastogne-Liége as well as the white jersey in the Tour, finishing 11th overall. At 24 years old, it was undeniable that Basso had the talent to be a GT winner one day.
The theme of Basso’s career was steady improvement. In 2003, his final year in Fassa Bortolo, he placed 7th in the Tour, his first general classification (GC) top 10 in any GT. The other theme of the Italian’s career so far seems to be getting a podium place in a major one day race. 2003 was no exception, with the silver medal in the Clasica de San Sebastian, only beaten by fellow Italian Paolo Bettini in a two-man sprint.
Team CSC and its team manager Bjarne Riis identified Basso’s potential and plucked him from Fassa Bortolo for the 2004 season. Fassa Bortolo was geared for the sprints with Alessandro Petacchi and this move allowed everyone to focus on their main goals. As a curiosity Petacchi would go on to win nine stages in the 2004 Giro so it’s hard to fault Fassa Bortolo for letting Basso go and focusing on the sprints.
Another curious fact is that, up to this point, Basso had not competed in the Giro since 2000, despite being an Italian rider, representing an Italian team. This would not change in 2004. What did change is that Basso became a GT stage winner, winning stage 12 of the 2004 Tour, crossing the finishing line at La Mongie ahead of Lance Armstrong. The Italian once again improved his GC result, finishing on the podium (3rd place behind Armstrong and Ullrich) for the first time in his career.
Still in 2004, the Italian stepped on the podium of a monument for the last time: he was 3rd in the Giro di Lombardia, behind Damiano Cunego and Michael Boogerd. Unlike the previous rider covered in this segment, Fred de Bruyne, who was a sensational classics specialist, Ivan Basso was a pure GT rider who did not find the ultimate success in the most important classics.
The goal for 2005 was clear: improve in the time-trial and rival Armstrong’s dominance in the Tour. For the first time in five years Basso went to the Giro and won his first two stages in that GT. One of these wins was the final 34km time trial. Despite suffering from stomach problems that prevented him from fighting for the pink jersey, Basso’s two wins in the third week of the Giro were encouraging signs for that years’ Tour de France. His improvement in the time trials was clear, winning one and placing 2nd (behind American specialist David Zabriskie) in the two long time trials of the Giro.
Unfortunately for Basso, Armstrong was still the strongest rider of the 2005 Tour. Nevertheless, the Italian kept improving. He crossed the finish line in Paris in 2nd place overall, cutting Armstrong’s lead over him to 4m40s.
Up to this point of Ivan Basso’s career he has improved season after season since turning pro in 1999.
That trend would continue in 2006. That year Basso did in the Giro what Armstrong was doing in the Tour: dominate. In fact, his level of domination in the 2006 Giro can’t even be compared to Armstrong’s. He won, 9m18s ahead of 2nd placed Jose Enrique Gutierrez, the biggest winning margin in the Giro since 1965. If we extend this comparison to all GTs, the 2006 Giro has the biggest winning margin since Laurent Fignon beat Bernard Hinault by 10m32s in the 1984 Tour. No GT has had such a winning margin since. Everything was looking great for the Italian to add the yellow jersey to his palmarés that summer.
Sadly though, that epic 2006 Giro was the last good performance Ivan Basso would have for a while. His name was implicated in the Operacion Puerto and he didn’t ride the Tour that year. At the end of 2006 he switched from Team CSC to Discovery Channel (the structured that succeeded Armstrong’s US Postal).
On the 30th of April of 2007 Basso was released by Discovery Channel. On the 15th of June he was suspended for two years.
It’s fun to think about what could have happened if he hadn’t been suspended. If he had been able to ride that 2006 Tour. The fact that he was suspended during his prime meant that the Italian still had a lot of gas in the tank when he came back two years later as a member of the Italian team Liquigas. He placed 5th in the 2009 Giro (later 3rd given the disqualifications of Di Luca and Franco Pellizotti) and 4th in that same years’ Vuelta.
In 2010 he would repeat his biggest feat yet by winning the Giro for the second time. His beautiful stage win on Monte Zoncolan was historic and indicated that we might see the Italian return to the form that made him famous in 2004-2005.
He moved to Tinkoff-Saxo (the team that succeeded Team CSC) in 2015, where he helped Alberto Contador win the 2015 Giro. He retired at the end of the season.
Nowadays he is involved in several projects alongside contemporary Spanish GT champion Alberto Contador. They worked together to create Eolo Kometa Cycling Team (who won, though rider Lorenzo Fortunato, the Zoncolan stage in the year’s Giro d’Italia) and the Aurum Bikes brand.
Interesting links