The results of this year's CSC Criterium International (three straight CSC victories) will certainly have more people putting Basso into their Tour de France pools:
- Stage 1 (flat): second place (cycling news summary)
- Stage 2 (mountain): first place (cycling news stage 2). Basso lead the final sprint from the first position and neither Botcharov nor Dominguez had a chance.
- Stage 3 (time trial): second place (cycling news stage 3)
Criterium International Photos by Graham Watson
Basso showed his ability to jump with all the breaks and his great early season time trialing. In Tyler Hamilton's second Daily Peloton interview, he hinted at Bjarne Riis' unwillingness to bet it all on the Tour. With Basso yet again competing for a Giro title, there certainly isn't Armstrong-like mentality at CSC, but Bobby Julich is adjusting his training from last year to put in a stronger effort for Basso so it seems that there will be less of the "look, we're on TV" strategy that CSC has employed in the past.
One Tour favorite who will not be competing against Basso in the Giro is Floyd Landis, who has announced he'll be skipping the Italian tour. Was Floyd worried about peaking too early with all his early season success? Is he going to spend those three weeks training on Tour stages? Beats me, but Ullrich will be riding the Giro, so we'll get to see two podium finishers riding side-by-side.
Basso is popular with the ladies and will be even more popular with Tour/Giro pundits
