“Lance sent a doctor to Italy at his own expense to try to cure my mother” – Ivan Basso talks Giro d’Italia glory, Lance Armstrong, and redemption

Ivan Basso’s career is one of the most fascinating of the 21st century. A two-time Giro d'Italia winner in 2006 and 2010, he also claimed the young rider classification at the 2004 Tour de France. However, his reputation was tarnished when he was implicated in the infamous Operación Puerto doping scandal in 2006. After serving his suspension, he made a remarkable comeback, winning the Giro again in 2010.

Since retiring in 2016, Basso has dedicated himself to rebuilding Italian cycling, which has been in a difficult place for some time. He founded Team Polti VisitMalta, a professional squad designed to revive the country's struggling cycling scene and nurture young talent.

In an interview with Corriere della Sera, Basso opened up about how cycling became an escape from a difficult upbringing.

"I was an only child in a complicated family. My mother Nives and my father Franco ran a butcher's shop, they confused life and work and argued a lot and all the time. I didn't understand the reasons for their arguments, but I suffered from the screams and the big words that flew around the rooms. First the tricycle and then the bike were my lifelines: to escape the screams I would run away and find peace by endlessly going round in circles in the courtyard."
That need for comfort soon turned into a passion.

"Then I continued my escape, switching from tricycle to racing bike. First race at seven years old, won. Second the following month in my hometown, Cassano Magnago, won. I always won. At that point I understood two things.
“The first is that I felt like I was born to pedal; the second is that my successes had a profound therapeutic effect on my family. When my parents came to see me, that is, every Sunday, they were happy and didn't argue for days.

“The maniacal diligence in living the life of a cyclist that accompanied me throughout my career was born unconsciously as a child to keep peace between my parents: I was afraid that if I wasn't focused enough they would start arguing again. There are those who start pedalling because they fall in love with a beautiful bike in a shop window; I because, even though I was very small, I wanted to prolong that truce indefinitely."

Basso quickly emerged as a prodigious talent. Inspired by cycling legend Francesco Moser, he tackled major climbs from a young age.

"At eight I rode a mountain bike and got into the mud because I wanted to imitate my idol Moser when he rode the Roubaix. At eleven I climbed the Aprica, at twelve I climbed the Stelvio convincing my parents to take me to Bormio."

Success came naturally. He dominated junior racing and was a favourite for the world title, only to be denied by a puncture.

"I won a lot, almost everything: I lost a world title among the juniors in the final due to a puncture, but I won the amateur title by arriving alone at the finish line. I was cheered, fought over by the teams, pampered by the fans. I was the boy prodigy who was realizing his dream."

Basso’s relentless commitment to the sport was clear, and he was ready to everything to reach the top.

"Hard work is an overestimated concept. You can train hard work, like muscles. It's hard to do a task you don't like or aren't capable of managing every day. This is true for professionals but also for those who work in an office. But you can make hard work your friend if you overcome your mental limits."

Basso's career took a dramatic turn in 2006 when he was implicated in Operación Puerto, a large scale Spanish investigation into doping. The scandal revealed that he had stored blood for future transfusions, though he insists he never actually used it.

"In Madrid I had two bags of blood taken that I would then have injected before the Tour to have fresher red blood cells and go faster. But in an investigative operation by the Spanish police they found the frozen bags, mine and others, and by associating them with the DNA in the federation's databases they identified me."

His drive to win at all costs had pushed him to the edge.

“I had grown up that way and nothing could stop me, I knew what was happening but I didn't want to realize it. I thought I was right."

Despite never completing the doping process, he acknowledged his wrongdoing, "I didn't have time. But I know what I did, I recognize my guilt, and I'm ashamed. But there are deeper motivations in what I did."

Basso was, of course, far from the only cyclist caught in the scandal. Many top riders of that era, including Armstrong, Tyler Hamilton and Alberto Contador, were implicated in doping cases.

In 2015, while riding as a domestique for Contador at the Tour de France, Basso's career took another unexpected turn when he was diagnosed with testicular cancer.

"In July 2015 I was competing in the Tour of France, at that point as Alberto Contador's domestique. During the Pau stage I had a bad fall. In the hospital, a CT scan found I had an advanced testicular tumour, which needed immediate surgery. Without that accident, I might have discovered it too late."

The diagnosis was particularly poignant given his past, "In that same place, eleven years earlier, a doctor friend had called me to say that the pancreatic cancer my mother was suffering from was terminal. I looked back at my life, I realized that a chapter was closing."

During his recovery, Basso reflected on his friendship with Lance Armstrong, the most controversial figure in cycling history.

"Lance for me is the man who (having survived a tumour) sent a doctor to Italy at his own expense to try to cure my mother. I leave it to others to judge his lies and his doping, for me he did something enormous."

Now, Basso watches as his son Santiago embarks on his own professional cycling career. However, he is determined not to influence his journey.

"My son Santiago has just turned professional. He does the same job as me, he doesn't wear the jersey of my team, I don't coach him, he will make his own way if he has the means. Micaela and I feel happy thinking that he works in a much more ethical world than the one I lived in, which has no idea of what surrounded us and tempted us at his age."