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Tuesday, 30 May 2006 |
CSC boss Bjarne Riis backs Ivan Basso to win Giro d'Italia and Tour de France the same year
CSC chief Bjarne Riis is backing cyclist Ivan Basso to become the first rider to win the Giro d'Italia and Tour de France the same year since 1998.
Ivan Basso, 28, won the Giro on Sunday and is aiming to follow the success of Marco Pantani in 1998.
"This is the best Ivan I've ever seen. He's shown he's at another level compared to last year and that he's the rider of the future," said Bjarne Riis.
"I'm convinced Ivan will be strong enough to be competitive in the Tour."
In the last two Tour de France races, Ivan Basso finished third and second place behind Lance Armstrong.
Lance Armstrong has now retired after winning seven Tours in a row and Bjarne Riis said it is now Ivan Basso's turn to pull on the Tour de France winner's yellow jersey.
Bjarne Riis said Ivan Basso has copied Lance Armstrong's riding style in the mountains so that he can gain time on Jan Ullrich.
"We saw that Armstrong rode small gears and was very agile on the climbs and that uses your muscles differently and allows you to change pace more easily," said Bjarne Riis.
"We know that Jan Ullrich can't do that because he pushes big gears and so we're convinced he'll struggle to stay with Ivan when he accelerates on the climbs in the Tour de France," Bjarne Riis added.
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 01 June 2006 )
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