Basso Wins Giro!
I can’t say this was a surprise. I guess it’s sorta like plaing hide and seek in your own house when you are little kid. You know all the hiding spots. You know who is going to hide where. Regardless, it is still a lot of fun. That is how the last week of the Giro D’ Italia shaped up. You see, Ivan Basso dominated from essentially the start. While humbly thanking and crediting his teammates for helping him capture the overall win, the stats spoke for themselves. Basso won three individual stages, was part of the winning team time trial, and finished second in three stages. I am not surprised he pulled off such a win. He started the Giro in incredibly good form, and has a very strong team backing him up.
The overall question is, can someone really perform at a world class level and win two Grand Tours in the same year? Marco Pantani did it back in 1998 (winning the Giro and the Tour De France), and we shall see if Basso manages a double come July. While I hope that Basso has enough in the tank to pull off a solid performance, Jan Ullrich (one-time winner and 5-time second place finisher of the Tour De France) is skeptical. Ullrich on Basso’s win:
“He makes a strong impression. And his CSC team is well-balanced. Ivan is on top of his game. However, I don’t think he will win the Tour. The competition is Italy is distinctively weaker than the one in France. And I want to have a say in it, too. (laughs)”
Read more about the Giro at Cyclingnews.com.
