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Basso to start season in Argentina
Ivan Basso, considered to be one of the favorites going into this May’s Giro d’Italia, is slated to start his 2009 campaign at Argentina’s Tour de San Luis, January 19 to 25.
Basso will co-captain the Liquigas team with fellow Italian Vincenzo Nibali.
"I am going to Argentina with plans to work hard and come back in good condition,” Basso said. “January is a good month to start your season and to gauge your fitness.
“One thing I will not do, though, is to charge into the year and overdo it,” he added. “It’s a long way to the Giro and I plan to build up progressively until May.”
The 31-year-old Basso won the 2006 Giro and was a favorite going into that year’s Tour de France. However, prior to the start of the Tour, Basso was implicated in Spain’s then-unfolding Operaćion Puerto investigation. He was banned from the race and subsequently fired from his CSC team.
Basso avoided investigators and soon signed with the U.S.-based Discovery Channel team. Faced with an Italian investigation, Basso finally conceded that he had consulted with Doctor Eufemiano Fuentes, a Spanish gynecologist charged with doping cyclists.
In June of 2007, Basso received a two-year suspension. The ban was calculated based on time he had already spent under suspension as a member of CSC and the time he spent under suspension after leaving Dicovery. His ban ended on October 25, 2008.
In addition to Basso and Nibali, the Liquigas squad in Argentina will include Kjell Carlström, Murilo Fischer, Alessandro Vanotti and recent recruit Brian Vandborg.
The team will also send riders to Australia for the Tour Down Under (18 to 25 January), the race that will mark the return of American Lance Armstrong to the professional peloton.
