Velochimp: Astrochimp on Cycling

Tuttobiciweb reports that Ivan Basso is seeking to rejoin the peloton very soon but not with the Discovery Channel team. The small continental squad LPR is the latest team to show interest. The Swiss based team’s DS is Davide Boifava of the legendary Carerra team of the 90s featuring Claudio Chiapucci and of course Marco Pantani.

Davide Boifava is using Basso’s name to help convince Romano Cenni, owner of Mercatone Uno, to return to cycling. Mercatone Uno was the big sponsor behind Marco Pantani in the late 90s and early 2000s. The Mercatone Uno squad were basically built around Pantani and his Tour quests. If Boifava can convince Cenni to back a new team featuring Basso then that would be a huge coup. But Basso should probably think things through before committing to such an endeavour.

Boifava will then need to sign riders who can actually support Basso in the Giro and Tour. If they can cobble together a team this late in the season there would be many other hurdles to climb. The biggest hurdle of all would be admittance into the ProTour which may not be such a big hurdle since the Grand Tour organizers are looking to reduce the number of ProTour automatic invited to 16. This would allow more flexibility to choose wildcard teams such as LPR. Basso however is on shaky ground with the A.S.O.. Relying on the generosity and compassion of Christian Prudhomme and other A.S.O. officials to allow him to race in their big event may be risky. The A.S.O. does not seem keen on letting anyone with any sort of blotch on their record even near the Tour. So if Basso is on a smaller non-ProTour team that is relying on a wildcard entry, then don’t place your bets on Ivan next year.