Limone Piemonte, 26 maggio 17:11 - After having suffered a stomach bug earlier this week, Team CSC's Ivan Basso on Thursday showed why he chose to continue in the Giro d'Italia. Basso escaped from the lead group on the last climb of the tough mountain stage from Varazze to Limone Piemonte and finished more than one minute ahead of José Rujano (Selle Italia) and Gilberto Simoni (Lampre). Paolo Savoldelli (Discovery Channel) retained his overall lead.
Today I proved, that we meant business, when we made the decision for me to continue in this race. I've known all along, that I'm a strong climber  maybe the strongest one here. And today I wanted to win without having to sprint for it. After my bad luck I had only one thing on my mind: To win in Limone Piemonte. I said this to Bjarne already on Stelvio. Now I did it, and it's a big relief both for me and my team. The whole group did a tremendous job for me today, and they all deserve a big thanks. I began this race almost three weeks ago with an ambition to win. That wasn't meant to be, and a stage win can't change that fact  but that's all behind me now. This victory says a lot about how much I've developed as a rider. A development owed first and foremost to Bjarne, said Ivan Basso after the 194 kilometer stage.
Ivan deserves this win so much, and it was great to see him pull thru. We've done all we can to stay motivated, and that was one of the things, which made today possible. Everyone could see, that Ivan is by far the strongest in the mountains. We have bounced back after a big blow, and that is worth a lot to us. It's also important to remember, that there's still a time trial and a tough mountain stage to go and no one should doubt the fact, that we're aiming to win both, said Bjarne Riis team-csc.com
After several attempts and the usual re-sorting of who can go and who must stay, 14 men were down the road and the race settled into its standard pacing. While Discovery Channel had the point early on monitoring the lead group, soon Lampre (for Simoni) and CSC (for an apparently rejuvenated Basso) came to the fore.
First up was the 7 km Madonna del Coletta, a nasty effort that split up the lead men down to 6 as the main pack, lead by Damiano Cunego, lurked 240 back. DC and CSC were still up front as they descended towards the real work of the day. The initial assault was on the 3 km Colletto del Moro, nothing too dramatic but as Cunego came to the front with Simoni he set a blistering pace that quickly sent those not able to contend off the back. Basso foreshadowed his renewed form though as he lead the peloton  what was left of it  over the top and down the descent to the base of the 25 km climb to the finish.
As the men rolled upward to Limone Piemonte the lead men were absorbed and it was Bassos teammate Schleck setting the early pace. With 20 km left in the day, really good news for Paolo Savoldelli as Schleck lead Basso and several others away from all the GC contenders and gapping to about 140. One thing the GC riders would not have liked was for Simoni to have jumped across onto the Basso train. Knowing Gibo was going to attack was bad enough, but to have Basso launch him  that would not have been acceptable.
With 6 kms left Basso simply rode away from everyone, showing the form he had earlier before a stomach virus took him down but not completely out of the 2005 Giro. A km later and it was Simoni finally taking off, and it was only the diminutive climber Rujano who could stay on his wheel. Savoldelli did not panic though, with time left in the stage and he stayed within himself. Even if Simoni could gain back some time, it was almost a certainty hed lose it back again in the 34 km Time Trial tomorrow.
Up on the front it was Basso simply winning easily, never even once coming out of the saddle. Rujano and then Simoni rolled in 106 later then Paolo 42 after them. While Simoni and Rujano would move up to 2 and 3 respectively as a result of their effort, Danilo Di Luca was bumped off the podium to 4th as he finished 144 back to the duo. So a solid day for most all of the main men in the Giro dItalia  the race of truth is tomorrow, and then the hellish stage 19 is Sat!