Giro d'Italia 2006 - Part II

29 May 2006

Going really flat out, in this last Giro d' Italia, Ivan Basso maybe went only on the last 3 km of the stage in Aprica, when he willingly and rather surgically dropped Gilberto Simoni from his wheel.

This at least was my impression on TV.

On all the other climbs of the stage race, Ivan gave the impression to have good margin, trying to control his efforts with the perspective of the incoming stages.

A soft, round pedaling, set on higher cadences than the past, allowed him to climb even the steepest gradients without getting out of the saddle, showing a great efficiency of the technical gesture. 

Even on the Mortirolo he confirmed the performances he expressed on the previous climbs: 44'30" was his time together with Simoni (VAM=1750 m/h).

Basso seemed to have remarkably improved his climbing if compared to last year when he never expressed himself above 1700 m/h.
This is surely due to a lower body weight and more ideal pedaling cadences for his power outputs, always around 85-95RPM in the decisive moments. 

He didn't really have any adversary up to his level and this surely has made it all easier together with a course that seemed to be extremely favorable: completely flat time trials without sharp corners and the first 3 mountain stages with a single final climb that allowed his superior physical level to prevail without any problem.