Ivan Basso|il terribile del ciclismo

L’intervista è in inglese
[non si può perdere Ivan che parla in inglese]

One of the riders’ favourite parts of the camp is the new clothing and equipment hand-out. When the full team arrived in the lobby to ride at 10am sharp, U.S. national champion George Hincapie stood out in his stars and stripes version of the team jersey, as did Japanese national champion Fumiyuki Beppu, who was distinguishable in his red an white rendition of Discovery’s uniform. The rest of the team showed off the team’s new, predominanly black kits.

One rider going into 2007 with a great deal of momentum is Tom Danielson, who took a stage win and sixth place overall in the Vuelta a Espana. The camp offered a chance for Danielson and his teammates to have some quality time together on and off the bike. "The training camp does a good job of bonding the team together and that’s the clear purpose." said Danielson. "They put riders in rooms together that don’t know each other. We train five or six hours together and that provides a lot of time to rotate through the group and talk with everyone, to see each other’s talent on the bike."

Discovery Channel’s director sportif Johan Bruyneel admitted that the team is piling on some extra miles in California. "We are here for the riders to get more miles in and to take advantage of the fact that they are training with a group. A lot of riders come from countries where the weather is not so good. So, we take advantage of having a group and put more hours in on the bike than normal."

Inevitably, the riders are keen to test their legs and take part in some friendly competition after the long winter months spent training solo. The team was split into two groups each day based on each rider’s focus: classics or climbs. "We have been doing some specific work on the climbs," Bruyneel said. "The better climbers are slightly behind in their preparation in comparison to those who train for the classics. Levi and Tom have shown that they are in great shape already and it shows they are motivated for the Tour of California."

The team on the climb
Photo ©: Kirsten Robbins

As the Discovery Channel team grows and changes, there are new faces and new personalities, and the camp is an important time for the riders to learn to work together. This year, the team needs to learn to work with their new leader Ivan Basso, and Bruyneel was more than pleased with how quickly Ivan became a part of his new team. "Ivan’s integration with the team has been very smooth as you can see for yourself. Ivan is a friendly guy and he is trying to be a champion bike rider," Bruyneel said. "He is kind to everyone. At our first training camp in Austin I could see his integration was going to be very good. Everyone likes to be around him and he is just another guy on the team."

Basso has also built strong relationships with the team’s sponsors and management staff. "The sponsors wanted very strongly to have Ivan be apart of our program and I can see that his relationship with our sponsors has already been established and they are huge fans of him," Bruyneel said. "As for me, my relationship with Ivan is still fresh. I am still trying to learn about him and he is still trying to learn about me. I need to have a very close relationship with the riders and I feel there will be a strong relationship with Ivan."

Team leaders

Danielson and Leipheimer:
Photo ©: Kirsten Robbins

Basso is clearly the team leader of choice, but Bruyneel’s squad has a few more aces in its hand. Both Yaroslav Popovych and new acquisition Levi Leipheimer have stood on the final podium of a Grand Tour - Popovych was third in the 2003 Giro d’Italia and Leipheimer third in the 2001 Vuelta a Espana. "There is a place for all of our riders to shine," Bruyneel said. "It is about setting goals. With Lance it was clear that he was the only leader for the Tour de France but this is not the case anymore. The most important thing is that Discovery wins. Sometimes we will need three leaders to win one race and two of those leaders will have to learn to sacrifice themselves for the other one."

Multiple leaders is something that’s new to the team, but the concept has its positive points. The climbers took turns ’stretching their legs’ on some of the Solvang climbs in a little high-spirited but amicable competition - but it was clear that internal competition will make these riders stronger to take on the rest of the peloton. "The possibilities are exciting and endless this year," said Danielson. "I go home thinking that I can’t make any mistakes with training because everyone is so good on my team that I need to continue the trend and increase my performance to a higher level. It has been good for everyone. We all arrived to Solvang in good condition because there’s a fire lit under us that says: Man, look at all these good guys on the team, if I slack off just a little I might not get to go to any races. So this is very exciting."

Approaching the day’s first climb.
Photo ©: Kirsten Robbins

Levi Leipheimer was also one of those taking part in the mock-races with the climbers, and is enjoying his new team. "There are a lot of new riders on the team this year," Leipheimer said. "I think the general feeling is that it is almost like a new team, a fresh team. Johan wanted to make a big change from last year. Everyone is very excited about this change. Change brings about new motivation and everyone realizes things are different than years past."

Leipheimer came over from the Gerolsteiner squad as a potential team leader before the signing of Basso, but isn’t unhappy about taking on a slightly different role than he anticipated, and agrees that having two cards to play is always better than one. "When I originally signed the contract a lot of people jumped to the conclusion that I would be the only leader or focus for the Tour de France," Leipheimer said. "However, my best finish was sixth and I do not have the record like Ivan does and I have never won the race like Lance did.

Danielson takes off his jacket
Photo ©: Kirsten Robbins

"However, when Ivan signed, it wasn’t like I was demoted - it just changed things and gave us more opportunity. Now Discovery Channel has a real favourite for the Tour where as I was just counted among others as a podium contender. I think that if the time comes that Ivan can take the yellow jersey than we will sacrifice everything for him to win. There is also the possibility that we can both finish pretty high in the general classification."

Leipheimer and Danielson may have their chance to be team leader at the fast approaching Tour of California, and while at camp the team previewed the course for the stage five Solvang time trial, which should be one of the decisive days of the race. "We do not have a true leader decided for the Tour of California," Danielson said. "Obviously Levi is motivated and in very good condition, but we are bringing a very good team to the Tour of California and I think that truly our only objective is to try to win the race. It is a hard race to win because there is no mountain top finish, no extra long time trial, so to beat a guy like Dave Zabriski we need to bring the whole team together and be creative and smart."

Though Basso has strongly indicated that he would like to win his first race with Discovery Channel, Bruyneel noted that the leadership will have to be decided during the race. "The competition of the Tour of California is going to be very high," Bruyneel said. "In my opinion, it is going to be a matter of having a very strong team with different candidates. There will be strong teams and it is not possible to control the whole race for one rider. It really does not matter who wins as long as it is a Discovery rider and we are going to bring a strong enough team to do that."

The Lance factor

A very rare sight these days.
Photo ©: Kirsten Robbins

As if new kits, new equipment, and new teammates weren’t motivating enough, the team brought a certain seven-time Tour de France winner to the camp to give the riders a little extra boost. As a part-owner in the team, Lance Armstrong has a vested interest in keeping tabs on his former co-workers, and joined the first half of the five-hour ride through Los Padres National Forest where he ‘motivated’ the climbers by taking a head start over the first climb and making them chase. One person who was especially glad to have the presence of Armstrong was the man who rode side by side against Lance in his last Tour de France, Ivan Basso.

"I think when Lance is around the team he acts as a form of motivation for everyone," Basso said. "He is not a specific help in our goal to win the Tour de France but it is the small details like talking to us on the bike or having coffee together that make a big difference to our motivation. Lance is a very charismatic man with a lot of experience and this is how he helps the team."

One thing the team can expect to see is more of Armstrong. Unlike last year when he kept his distance from the squad, Lance will take more of an active role in the team in 2007. "Last year Lance was stepping away from cycling on purpose because he felt it was the only way to be able to retire and see what he wanted to do with his life," Bruyneel said. "This year it is different, he has on his own request actively participated in a lot of things with the team: The way we compose the team, he has been at the training camp in Austin, he is here in Solvang and he will be at other races this year."

"His role is not very specific but the fact that he still has the biggest name in cycling is definitely something that we can benefit from. Whether it is from a sponsorship standpoint, his experience to give to the riders or his charisma that he still has. The fact that he is here is definitely a motivating factor for the young riders. It is good to have him on board actively. My interaction with him is still very frequent and I consult a lot of decisions with him today."

Discovery reborn with Ivan Basso

Ivan Basso
Photo ©: Kirsten Robbins

The signing of Ivan Basso in December began as a controversial investment and has since become the rebirth of a new team mindset and a fresh face. Basso’s presence in Solvang has sparked an energy that Discovery Channel has not felt since the retirement of Lance Armstrong.

The team’s new leader remarked upon feeling very good about his first months with Discovery. "For me it is a very special time," Basso said. "You can only imagine that it was not a good summer or first part of the winter for me last year. I did not know which team I would ride for in 2007 and I arrived here, with this new team feeling very comfortable. All of the people with Discovery Channel like me and have a lot of respect for me because of the work I have done in cycling in the past. I feel very good and I am sure that I have become a part of this team quickly."

Bruyneel acknowledged that Basso’s signing has brought new hope to the future of the Discovery Channel. "It is not a secret that I want us to be again where we were before," Bruyneel said. "I mean that we can win the Tour and the big stage races. I think we have assembled a very strong team this year to try again. It is difficult for me to be happy with something less than that. If you have tasted and are used to the maximum success, we cannot be happy with being a team that goes only for stage wins and places second in the big races. Of course the pressure that I put on myself and on the team is the price we need to pay for having done what we have done in the past. Our sponsors expect only the best from us, which means winning. The fans expect us to win, the team expects it and I expect it. It is something that we had gotten used to and when I did not have the feeling that we were able to do that again I had lost my motivation, so I need this kind of great pressure."

Bruyneel has found a new motivation
Photo ©: Kirsten Robbins

Bruyneel spoke of his future plans for the team based on the 2006 season and the changes that will aid in the future of the program. "Last year Lance retired but the rest of the team basically stayed the same in the hopes that some of the strong riders of Discovery could jump up and take the role of the leader’s position in something like the Tour de France," he explained. "For different reasons that plan did not work out and in the end I learned a lot from last year. Overall I have to say that I am satisfied with the 2006 season and for any normal team it would have been a great season. The only problem is that we set the limit so high from the years before that anything less than winning the Tour de France was not good enough. I felt that the pressure was on my shoulders to make big changes in the team, some very important changes - hiring Ivan Basso was one of them."

Although Basso never managed to knock Armstrong from his perch during the 2004 and 2005 Tours, Bruyneel acknowledged that the Italian is one of a handful of riders with proven credentials for capturing the yellow jersey come July. "When I look at the facts of the last two seasons of the Tour de France with Lance present, Ivan was the only rider to follow Lance in the mountains," Bruyneel said. "I looked at the statistics of all the stages and in two years Ivan had only lost one minute to Lance. So that is important information to have if you think about Ivan and his possibilities to win the Tour. If he is fit and has a good support team, I think his chances are good to win. I am very happy he is with us."

George still wants Roubaix

George Hincapie
Photo ©: Kirsten Robbins

Discovery Channel’s future goals do not solely revolve around the Tour de France. U.S. national champion George Hincapie has his eyes firmly focused on winning Paris-Roubaix, a race where the American has often been faced with stronger teams, the irrepressible might of Tom Boonen or just plain bad luck in the 2006 edition. And though the Tour de France is undoubtedly the team’s main focus, Bruyneel still has one eye on the Spring Classics. "We would love to see George win Paris-Roubaix, even more than the Tour of Flanders," he said. "Paris-Roubaix is a race that he has been dreaming of since he was a young professional and he has been very close a few times. If George won Paris-Roubaix it would almost be the same as winning the Tour de France for us. That is our big goal."

Discovery also highlights the Tour of California and the Tour de Georgia as the most important team objectives. "They are two of our biggest goals of the year," Bruyneel said. "The reason is because we are an American team and it is our obligation to be at our best in the two biggest American races."

Turning negatives into positives

Along with a new team, a new leader and new goals comes a transformed perspective on Operación Puerto. Discovery Channel has begun the season with a positive attitude and a positive outlook on the past season’s negativity.

It’s no laughing matter
Photo ©: Kirsten Robbins

The positive change began with Basso’s signing with Discovery, after spending several months secluded from public attention with the intention of protecting himself and his family. For Basso, spending time with his family was the only way to keep a positive outlook under the circumstances. "I have two babies, a daughter and a son, they are the reason why I was able to smile all the time," Basso said. " When you have a baby who is one month old and he is smiling at you, you forget all of the bad situations."

The scandal surrounding Operación Puerto brought with it the decision for Basso and Team CSC to go their separate ways. "I have a very good relationship with Bjarne Riis and I need to give thanks to him," Basso said. "He is someone I have a lot of respect for. When my name Ivan Basso was in good shape for having two podiums in the Tour and being the Giro winner, it is thanks to Bjarne and the entire team of CSC. We decided the best situation for myself, Team CSC and Bjarne was to change the life. I am really happy about this decision because I have great memories from my old team and good relationships with most of the riders on CSC. It is better for everybody that we go our separate ways."

Signing on the dotted line with Discovery Channel has proven to be the biggest motivating factor in Basso’s career after the bout of turmoil. "When I signed with Discovery Channel in November I began to feel good again, thinking about the Tour de France and the Giro d’Italia with increasing motivation and morale," Basso said. "I am always motivated to train but there were times when I had little morale. I continued training, never stopping because I wanted to reach the end of the year still as a rider."

Basso’s Trek is clean and ready for tomorrow.
Photo ©: Kirsten Robbins

Last year’s scandal continues to bring anti-doping procedures to the forefront of cycling. Bruyneel discussed the impact it had on the structure of anti-doping within the UCI, saying, "The UCI recently announced the new anti-doping policy and that is another step forward in the fight against doping. Cycling has always been a pioneer in the fight against doping and every time we take a new step forward other sports follow us, that is ultimately a positive idea. These new anti-doping policies of the UCI, which hopefully all teams will live by, are the greatest in sports and this is definitely positive."

There is no doubt that the scandal affected the sport of cycling in many ways and Tom Danielson was one rider not afraid to share his personal fears. "A lot of negative things have come out of Operación Puerto." Danielson began. "No one really knows what the situation is and it has definitely scarred cycling plus a lot of riders and their families. If it turns out to not even be an issue that is bad for our sport. Perhaps the positive thing is that there is more confidence in the system of anti-doping and hopefully this situation has forced the public to look at the proper procedures and improve the methods and techniques of the anti-doping system."

"It needs to be a 100% measure because the scary thing is that this is our job," Danielson continued. "Ivan has a family with two children and I have a wife. If anyone were to make a mistake it costs us our family and our job and that is very scary. Hopefully this momentum of anti-doping, partially due to Operación Puerto, will ensure that it won’t happen in the future."

fonte: cyclingnews

fonte: tuttobiciweb

fonte: tuttobiciweb