Ivan Basso said he Thursday he feels "reborn" after signing a two-season contract with the Discovery Channel cycling team.

The 28-year-old Giro d'Italia winner is expected to take the central spot in the team once occupied by seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong.

"It's the ideal team for me," Basso told the Gazzetta dello Sport website on Thursday.

"I'm incredibly happy. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say it's a new life for me - I feel reborn,” Basso said. “The squad are committed to supporting me in the double challenge of the Tour of Italy and the Tour De France.

"It's a project that fills me with enthusiasm. The team and I have the same ambitions. Now I am thinking about taking a week's holiday, somewhere hot, and near the sea. Then I will think about 2007."

After that break, Basso will begin training with his new team at its training camp December 3 in Austin, Texas. He will be joining the team's other top grand-tour hope, Levi Leipheimer, who was recruited away from the German Gerolsteiner squad this past summer. Prior to signing Basso, Discovery appeared to have pinned some of its biggest hopes on Leipheimer, the 33-year-old former U.S. Postal team rider.

Going into this year's Tour de France, Leipheimer was considered to be a major contender, but Leipheimer struggled at times and finished 13th overall, around 19 minutes behind winner Floyd Landis.

“During Lance’s final Tours, Ivan pushed Lance to a new level,” said Bill Stapleton, general manager of the Discovery team. “And we expect great things from him in 2007.”

Basso finished third in the 2004 Tour de France and was second in 2005 behind Armstrong. Stapleton said he considers Basso the team leader for the 2007 Tour de France.

“We’ve had a close relationship with him over the past three or four years, and there’s been a friendship and camaraderie between him and Lance,” said Stapleton.

Basso said he not only wants to try to win the Tour de France, but to defend his Giro title in 2007.

“I never had doubts about my choice,” he said. “They guarantee everything I need.”

One of the best mountain climbers in cycling, Basso was left without a team after parting company with the Danish CSC team, managed by 1996 Tour winner Bjarne Riis.

The Italian's contract was terminated by mutual consent after he was linked to Operación Puerto, the Spanish doping investigation.

Basso was not allowed to take part in this year's Tour de France due to his alleged involvement in the scandal, but last month he was acquitted by the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) and the Italian cycling federation.

Both agencies concluded that there was insufficient evidence to warrant a suspension or to pursue further investigation. Spanish investigators continue to pursue the case, but have privately conceded that the effort is beginning to lose traction.

Police still retain possession of nearly 200 bags of blood seized from the properties of Dr. Eufemiano Fuentes, the man at the center of the investigation. However, several riders mentioned in the physcian’s phone and e-mail records, including Basso, have refused to submit to DNA tests.

The directors of ProTour cycling teams meeting in Paris last month called for the use of DNA evidence to identify doping cheats involved in the scandal.

The directors, including Discovery’s Johann Bruyneel, said each of the riders implicated in the Spanish affair should agree to take DNA tests that would categorically prove whether or not their blood samples were held in the laboratory owned by Fuentes.

"All the teams will ask their riders to agree before January 1, 2007, to the UCI using DNA testing if necessary, particularly in the Puerto affair," a spokesperson for the teams' association (AIGCP) told AFP.