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Ivan Basso Finally Conquered Italy He won the Tour of Italy, and is now aiming to triumph in France too	By Ovidiu Panzariu, Sports Editor 29th of May 2006, 10:48 GMT Adjust text size:


Ivan Basso is truly the new champion of Italy. With the football crisis in the Peninsula, the Italian crowd couldn't have been more focused on the Italian Giro. And that's how Basso became the most important man of the day on Sunday. After 2 weeks of long and exhausting stages - it was the Tour of Italy with the most difficult mountain climbs in the last decade - Ivan Basso seems to move closer and closer to the cyclist Lance Armstrong predicted him to be. "The emotions of the birth of my son Santiago on Friday and then winning the Giro will stay with me for the rest of my life. I've suffered a lot to get to where I am. I don't consider myself a natural champion like some riders. I've had to work hard to improve in time trials and learn how to become a team leader. Only I know the pain I've been through and the sacrifices I've made", burst into tears Basso at the end of the race. His main rival for the tour win, Jose Enrique Gutierrez, only managed the second position in the overall standings, 9 minutes and 18 seconds away, the second largest winning margin in more than 50 years. But, more importantly, Basso proved everyone that he has made a great recovery in terms of time-trials and especially mountain stages. The three most difficult wins came in the mountain stages, where Basso gave no chance to Gutierrez for time-recovery. More, he succeeded in putting almost 5 minutes between him and the Spaniard in the last 3 stages. "In recent years it was always me and Lance together at the end of the big mountain stages. Now I'm on my own. I'm not an extra-terrestrial or a 'cannibal' as some people have said. I gained time on the pure climbers in the time trial and then they lost time on the climbs simply because they didn't ride as well as expected", added the Italian champ. His future thoughts are now focusing on July's Tour de France, where he hopes to equal Pantani's record of winning both Il Giro and Le Tour in the same season. As far the French competition is concerned, Basso concluded: "I can't celebrate and rest too much because the Tour is not far away. This Giro has been hard but leading the race for 15 days has taught me a lot. I know the pink jersey is not like the yellow jersey at the Tour de France but now I feel ready to face the pressures of the Tour. I've never said I can win the Tour but I'm going to try".

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