TOUR DE FRANCE Basso eyes winning top two cycling events

He won Giro d'Italia and is a Tour de France favorite.
PARIS (AP) -- Ivan Basso is finally out of Lance Armstrong's shadow at the Tour de France. Now the winner of the Giro d'Italia will try to do what Armstrong never did: win cycling's top two events in the same year.
Basso won last month's Giro d'Italia in his home country and is a favorite to win the Tour de France in July, which would give him the double last achieved by his late compatriot Marco Pantani in 1998.
That was Basso's first year as a pro and the last year before Armstrong rattled off a record seven straight Tour wins. Over time, Basso grew as a challenger, finishing 11th in 2002, 7th in 2003, third in 2004 and runner-up last year.
His Team CSC director Bjarne Riis calls Basso "the rider of the future" -- and his first major title victory in the Italian race last month suggests that future may be sooner than first thought.
Supporting cast
Basso will have a strong supporting cast: Mountain expert Carlos Sastre, Australian sprint specialist Stuart O'Grady, time-trial aficionado David Zabriskie, plus Jens Voigt, Frank Schleck, Giovanni Lombardi, Christian Vande Velde and U.S. veteran Bobby Julich.
"My team has a lot of confidence in me," Basso said. "I feel good, and I know that everybody is with me."
Basso was dominant in the Giro: He won three stages, placed an impressive second in the individual time trial, donned the leader's pink jersey for 14 days, and seemingly didn't break a sweat on some climbs in one of the hardest editions of the race in years.
His margin of victory -- 9 minutes, 18 seconds -- was the biggest in the Giro since 1965.
Since then, Basso has passed on other races, spending time with his new son, riding in fundraisers in and near Milan, scouting the route of the Tour's stages in the Alps, and training six to seven hours a day in Tuscany, team officials said.
Ullrich five-time runner-rup
Jan Ullrich, the 1997 Tour winner and five-time runner-up, is aching for victory just as much as Basso. The T-Mobile leader got a confidence boost by winning the Tour de Suisse, thanks to an emphatic victory in the time trial in the final stage.
CSC's Riis says the Tour's course this year favors Ullrich. It features two long time trials -- a traditional forte for the German veteran.
"I expect Jan to be very strong in the Tour," Basso said. "When he wins in Switzerland, it's a win for me -- because I expect the best Jan in the best Tour."
CSC spokesman Brian Nygaard said Basso is still improving in time trials, and has been working to adjust his seat position, for example, to improve his speed for the races against the clock.
"He isn't going to lose a lot of time in the time trials," Nygaard said by phone.
With only one major under his belt, and his smiling demeanor, some cycling experts have mused that Basso may not have the mental strength to win. Armstrong often was able to psyche out rivals with his intense focus.
But Riis said that is no longer true.
"He's changed a lot in the last year," Riis said. "He's a killer -- in a good way, of course."