Italy’s poster boy Ivan Basso made his mark this weekend in the French cycling race the Criterium International in which he showed incredible form for this early in the season. The race was the first race Basso has entered and he placed in the top three in all three stages of the event and won the overall title.
German star and Tour contender Jan Ullrich should especially take note of today’s third and final stage which was a 8k time trail in which Basso nearly won. Each year Basso seams to become a more well rounded rider, for years the time trial was his achilles heel however over the last two years Basso had made strides in that discipline as well.
Basso beat out Dutch rider Erik Dekker who won the first stage of the three stage race, only to watch Basso walk away with the over lead in stages two and three (winning stage two and nearly winning stage three as well). Dekker suffered cramps on the final climb and lost 15secs to Basso, who eventually won the stage ahead of Russian Alexandre Botcharov and Juan Carlos Dominguez of Spain.
Final overall standings
1. Ivan Basso (ITA) CSC 7hr 17min 3sec,
2. Erik Dekker (NED) 27sec behind,
3. Andriy Grivko (UKR) 1:08,
4. Jose Ivan Gutierrez (ESP) 1:22,
5. Ronny Scholz (GER) 1:31,
6. Igor Astarloa (ESP) 1:32,
7. Constantino Zaballa (ESP) 1:53,
8. Pieter Weening (NED) 1:58,
9. Juan Carlos Dominguez (ESP) 2:04,
10. Alexandre Botcharov (RUS) 2:19 afp06
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