Brilliant Victory for Basso

With a picture of his newborn son held high in the air Ivan Basso crossed the finish line solo to a triumphant stage win in the 211-kilometer 20th stage of Giro d’Italia between Trento and Aprica.

After a long and hard day with legendary mountains, such as Gavia and Mortirolo, Basso was celebrated as the winner of the stage after having dropped Gilberto Simoni (Saunier Duval) on the final climb.

”I wanted to win today and I gave all I had in me to do so. It was a great stage and it never occurred to me to wait for Simoni and let him win. We’ve behaved very correctly throughout the Giro, but today the team had worked so hard to pave the way for me, so I wanted to finish the job so badly,” said Basso, who with today’s victory consolidated his place in the Giro as a major profile.

”I was given the picture by a photographer this morning, so it wasn’t like I’d planned on winning the stage with the picture in my hands. But when I saw that I had a gap on Simoni and was able to win the stage, I felt like sending a message home to my family to share my happiness with them,” added Basso.

”Ivan took a brilliant victory today and it was totally deserved. He is the strongest rider in the Giro, and it was only logical that he went for it on the last mountain stage. Simoni was very strong as well today, but after Ivan had dropped him he gained a considerable amount of time and went on to win a great, great victory,” said Bjarne Riis after Team CSC’s fourth stage win in this year’s edition of Giro d’Italia.