Ivan Basso looking good for an overall victory at the Giro d’Italia 2012

Ivan Basso looking good for an overall victory at the Giro d’Italia 2012

Ivan Basso of Team Liquigas-Cannondale is currently holding the third overall position after the stage 15 classifications of the Giro d’Italia 2012.

The cyclist is currently 1 minute and 22 seconds behind the race leader Joaquim Rodriguez and is determined to stick with his defending strategy for the race.

Ryder Hesjedal of Team Garmin-Barracuda is holding the second spot with a deficit of 30 seconds over Rodriguez.

Paolo Tiralongo, Roman Kreuziger, Michele Scarponi, Benat Intxausti Elorriaga and Sergio Luis Henao hold the next five positions.

“As a team, we took the reins of the race so that we could control any attacks,” Ivan briefed.

“Ours was a strategy of containment, albeit a sustained rhythm”.

“Seeing as it’s the first mountain stage, my rivals were at more or less equal strength, so for this reason, I preferred to control things rather than to force it”.

“We knew that it was going to be a hard stage, and then the weather made the climbs even harder”.

“I wouldn’t have been able to make the difference that I wanted. It was better to save a bit more energy for tomorrow’s stage”.

The Italian is having a dry season and has not picked up any wins yet.

He is looking good for a top podium position after the final general classifications and is saving his energy for the later part of the Italian Grand Tour.

The 34-year-old started his professional crusade with Team Riso Scotti in 1999 and stayed with the team by the end of 2000 season.

He also represented Team Fassa Bortolo (2001-2003), Team CSC (2004-2006), Team Discovery Channel (2007) and finally accepted an offer from Team Liquigas in 2008.

Basso has helped the team with numerous top class performances in the past season and is looking good to find his 2012 winning ways with a top podium spot at the Giro.

He holds as many as 14 Grand Tour performances under his belt including six Giro d’Italia, seven Tour de France and one Vuelta a Espana to his credit.

Basso occupied the top overall spot during the Giro d’ Italia 2006 and 2010 and is optimistic to bag his third overall victory at the Giro d’Italia 2012.