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30 May 2006

31 May News ...

Papà Basso Parties and Prepares

Ivan Basso (CSC) is home with his family and enjoying life as the new Giro d'Italia champion. The Italian Stallion is spending time with his wife, Micaela, daughter, Domitilla and newly born, son Santiago. Basso (28) passed Sunday evening parting like it was 1999 and yesterday, Monday, recovering at home while fielding phone calls from tifosi.

"We were celebrating very late, but for a Giro win it is deserved," said Basso of Sunday's party, which ended around 2.00 Monday morning. "Voigt, because of a wager we had, drank an entire bottle of Brunello di Montalcino."

Il Varesino, as normal for Giro winners, spent time fielding telephone calls via la Gazzetta dello Sport. Most all of the phone calls were well wishes for his new son and victory in la Corsa Rosa, but some were from Gilberto Simoni's tifosi. "I will not be taken to this level," said Basso of the negative phone calls. "I say that if they have something bad to say about me then they can do it face to face."

"It was well worth doing the Giro," said Basso. After the parties and time with his family, Ivan Basso will have to start on preparing for the Tour de France, starting 1 July. Il Varesino is attempting to do what has not been done in years, to win the two biggest Grand Tours in the same year.

Ivan Basso has a busy schedule leading to stage one of the Tour in Strasbourg. Four post-Giro criteriums: tomorrow in Salò (31 May), Thursday in Arona (1 June), Friday a mountain time trial in Mottarone and Sunday in Pieve Vergonte (4 June).

Starting this week Basso will preview some of the Tour stages with Team Manager, Bjarne Riis. They will go to Alpe d'Huez (stage 15), Morzine (stage 17), the new and unknown climb of La Toussuire (stage 16) and have a look at the Massif Central stages. Then, a couple of weeks later, Basso and Riis will return to France with the entire nine-man team.

There will be only a few races for Basso leading to La Grand Boucle: The Italian Stallion will ride the ProTour Team TT in Eindhoven, Holland (18 June) and the Italian national TT and road race (20, 25 June).

Armstrong Sees Ullrich as Man to Beat

"Basso was very impressive," said Lance Armstrong yesterday. The seven-time Tour de France winner* visited the Giro d'Italia early in the race, for the team time trial in Cremona, and then thought that Basso would have a tough time: "Basso remains a favorite, but has a lot of pressure on him, and I don't know if he can carry that weight. We will see how it goes in the mountains. But for the Tour... Basso."

Regarding the Giro win, Armstrong said, "He might have spent too much energy on stages that were not really to his characteristics. ... Everyday my impression changes for the Tour. It will be more open than the past years. Basso and Ullrich are the two favorites, but I have seen Jan going better in the final days of the Giro and I believe that he will be the man to beat."

* Note: Last night at dinner with a colleague we were reflecting on the Giro d'Italia and the upcoming Tour de France, BiciRace.com was caught off guard and again amazed at the number of Tour de France wins by Il Texano. Armstrong dominated the French race for seven years, the pervious winner was Marco Pantani, which seemed so long ago. BiciRace.com was asked if there will be another seven-time winner. Our answer, "No."

Di Luca with Giro to Forget

Danilo Di Luca (Liquigas) had a Giro d'Italia to forget. L'Abruzzese decided to base his 2006 season on the Giro d'Italia after finishing fourth in the 2005 edition. Last year he won a slew of spring races before going on to astonish in la Corsa Rosa. This year he backed off with his early season form, missing opportunities to repeat in the Ardennes, to be in top condition for the Giro d'Italia.

Di Luca's Giro plan failed to work. The Killer blames part of the failure on dental problems he suffered in the spring, but that does not answer the every Giro question. Slow in the time trials and the mountains made for huge time loses, and that is no way to compete with Basso or Simoni.

The Killer is now going to try to salvage his season racing the Tour de France, which must leave Stefano Garzelli scratching his bald head. It was Garzelli, on hot form all spring, who backed off in May to rebuild for the Tour de France. The Liquigas team wanted to invest all of their efforts on Di Luca at the Giro, leaving the 2000 Giro Champion, Garzelli, for the Tour. But now Di Luca wants to share part of Garzelli's stage lights at the Tour... Mamma Mia!

Post-Giro Criteriums

Last night the Criterium of Carate Brianza started off a serious of Post-Giro criteriums. These unofficial races are great for the fans and a good way for the riders to earn extra cash.

In Carate Brianza, under a downpour of rain, Gilberto Simoni (Saunier Duval-Prodir) won ahead of Cunego and Di Luca. The same riders will appear again tonight in Broni (Lombardia) where Eugeni Berzin is organizing a 50K criterium, followed by a 1.5K uphill time trial.

The criteriums continue tomorrow in Salò (Lombardia), Thursday in Arona (Piemonte), Friday a mountain time trial in Mottarone (Piemonte), the Memorial Pantani Saturday in Cesenatico (Emilia-Romagna) and Sunday in Pieve Vergonte (Piemonte).

Würth Takes Liberty Seguros

Würth, the second sponsor of Liberty Seguros-Würth, will take over full sponsorship of the Spain-based team. The German company will honor all contracts with the squadra, which seems to still have Manolo Saiz as the Team DS. There are also reports that a large, unnamed Kazakh company will join on as a secondary sponsor.

A press release sent Saturday from team officials said: "Liberty Seguros and Active Bay, the managing society of the cycling team of the same name, have reached today an agreement on the terms of the resolution of the sponsorship's contract maintained till now. The agreement includes Liberty Seguros's commitment to assume, in necessary case, the financial obligations derived from the contracts with riders." Shortly after this press release the team's website was shutdown.

29 May News ...