From the Cervelo newsletter.
Jan
Eighteen months of focus paid off yesterday for Ivan Basso, as the
once-mediocre time trialist blasted through the 45km 8th stage of the Giro d
'Italia and left a path of distruction in his wake. On his brand-new P3
Carbon with Wolf TT fork, Basso gained 1min39 on Garzelli, 2min7 on Cunego
and 2min37 on Simoni. Even reknowned time trailer Sergei Gontchar lost 36
seconds to Basso.
But it hasn't been easy for Basso to get where he is today. Prior to riding
for Team CSC, he had never trained on his time trial bike. He didn't have a
TT bike at home, he didn't train on one in the training camps, the only time
he would ride one would be in races. That all changed when he came to Team
CSC. Realizing that without a good time trial a rider cannot win the big
tours, Bjarne Riis put together a training schedule for him that heavily
focused on improving Basso's skills in this area. Now he regularly puts in
100km+ a day on one of the several Cervelo time trial bikes he has at home.
He rode yesterday's Giro stage at least 20 times in training, knew ever
corner and every pothole. He now feels as comfortable on his P3 Carbon as he
does on his R2.5 and Soloist. And for the first time in his career, he now
actually looks forward to the time trials as opportunities to gain time on
his rivals.
"Today's stage was very important, and I was fully aware of what I had to
do. It's fantastic to be able to make a result like this, which is what
Bjarne and I had hoped for. We've been working for a long time with this
time trial, and I believe, I've done the route about 20 times. I've been
training a lot in order to be able to make a difference in this discipline.
Yesterday's time loss was just another motivation factor for me, and I was
very determined to retaliate. I owe Bjarne a special thanks, cause he is
also a big part of this triumph. We still have a lot of tough stages ahead
of us, but today we took a giant leap forward," said Ivan Basso.
The only rider Ivan couldn't beat yesterday was another Team CSC member on a
Cervelo. In this case, it was Dave Zabriskie on a P3 SL, CSC's stock TT
bike. It was the first time trial victory in a major Tour for the young
American, even though the main reason to go fast was not to win the stage,
but to scout out the course for Ivan. But that doesn't mean he didn't have
victory in the back of his mind.
"I'm very happy with my victory. I started early, so it was quite nerve
wrecking to watch the other guys on TV. On the last part of the course we
had headwinds, and I knew that would be to my advantage because of my
position on the bike. I'm a time trial specialist, and this is definitely a
victory I've dreamt about for a long time. I was allowed to take it easy in
yesterday's stage, so I was able to aim for something big today," said
Zabriskie.
All in all, yesterday's results were a big victory for the team and for
Bjarne Riis, who has always focused on time trials, from equipment choices
to rider selection to training schedules.
"It was a fantastic day for us. David showed his huge potential and Ivan did
the time trial of his life. We couldn't expect more than this. Our
preparations have paid off, and Ivan confirmed yesterday's time loss wasn't
due to lack of strength. Our team is here to win the Giro with Ivan, and
today we showed, that we mean business," said Bjarne Riis.