As many of you may recall, there was a polar division between those who thought Basso was an idiot for slogging up the Stelvio once he blew, and those that thought he was a real champion for continuing. A bunch of you guys said that he should have packed it in and saved things for the TdF, but the man himself said that he would rather end the race in the back of an ambulance than in the team car.
Now he is part of what people are predicting to be the Paris podium: Lance-Ullrich-Basso.
Granted there is still the toughest stage left tomorrow and the long ITT, but Basso is showing he has the heart of a champ !
I really like Basso, he seems like a classy guy and a true all-a-rounder. All Basso has to do his now is follow Lance and he’s on the Podium. I’m not quite sure how much he will need on Ullrich his year since his time trialing is much improved. I bet he can be within 1 min of Jan during the last TT.
He better put a little more time into Levi, however. I’d be very worried in the TT if Levi is still within 2 minutes. Jan will be there though. He rode tough today - I felt bad he couldn’t hang that last km. He has a shit team except for Kloden. I used to like Vino, but his antics are immature. I’d be worried about signing someone with no team allegiance if I were Brunyeel.
The only way for Basso to be in yellow would be for Lance not to race. Sorry, it’s the truth. Basso is a stud, so is Jan and Levi for that matter, but none of them will win this thing this year. Next year? Maybe, but only if their team adopts a tour-centric approach so they can actually compete with Discovery.
IMO, if Basso were to move to Disco next year, he would be a lock to win the tour.
IMO, if Basso were to move to Disco next year, he would be a lock to win the tour.
I don’t think he can put enough time into a Jan Ullrich who will come into next summer with good fitness to offset the big advantage Jan has in the time trial. Jan wins next year, no matter which team Basso is on, unless he takes his TT to new heights, and I don’t think he will.
In any event, Basso is the only dude to do the Giro Tour double who is showing any form of performance at both events (actually Zabriskie showed form at both events). I doubt that him pulling out of the Giro would have resulted in a hammering of Lance. No one is hammering him right now regardless of their prep, although you have to give T-mobile credit for tryinig multiple times today.
As for Disco signing Vino, I bet there are only two guy who can maximize Vino’s potential…Bruyneel and Riis.
I was surprised he finished the giro at all and more suprised he did well towards the end of it. When he started the tour, I didn’t think he would do so well, but it was pretty obvious how wrong I was early on.
It’s been a while since anyone was strong enough to do that well at two grand tours in the same year. If he can do it despite some horror in the middle of one of them, and I suspect really only focussing on the giro this year, then he’s pretty special.