Tour de France: Ivan Basso Quits Due to Cancer

Jul 14, 2015 - by Dani

That’s a terrible way to be ruled out of the competition (Photo: YouTube)

Two-time Giro d’Italia winner Ivan Basso announced on the first rest day of the Tour de France that he has to retire from the competition.

On stage five he was involved in a small crash. The saddle caught his left testicle. After the incident, he felt pain for days. The medical checks revealed that he has a small cancer in his left testicle. The 37-year-old will have an operation in Italy as soon as possible. He trained mostly together with his Tinkoff Saxo Bank teammate Alberto Contador this year. The Italian climber would have been an important lieutenant of the Spaniard in the mountains.

BBC.com: Tour de France 2015: Ivan Basso withdraws with cancer

Italian cyclist Ivan Basso was forced to retire from the Tour de France 2015 after he was diagnosed with testicular cancer, gambling news report. He revealed his problem immediately after the decision was made. He said, “We discovered this two hours ago. I have to stop.”

Tour de France Etape 5: Hopefully not the last race of Basso’s career (Photo: ASO)

Gambling blogs predicted before the Tour that the 37-year-old climber would have been one of the most important assistants of Alberto Contador in the mountains. Basso was involved in a crash on stage five. The cancer was found on the competition’s first day off. His teammate, Contador was listening Basso’s press conference in tears.

Basso will have a surgery in Italy soon. He was one of Lance Armstrong’s challengers. It was expected that he would be the American’s successor after his retirement. However a doping scandal compromised the popular Italian’s career. Armstrong was also diagnosed with testicular cancer during his career, though he was able to recover and came back stronger.

The Guardian: Ivan Basso withdraws from Tour de France due to testicular cancer

Ivan Basso, the former rival of Lance Armstrong had to quit the Tour de France. The Italian revealed that he had cancer in his left testicle. He was in pain after a day five crash, and the medical tests discovered the tumor. Basso announced his withdrawal in a press conference, shocking many of those, who follow live sports results.

He was understandably shaken at the press conference (Photo: YouTube)

He said, “Unfortunately I have a bad announcement. I have a small cancer in my left testicle, so you can understand that I have to go back to Italy. We discovered this just two hours ago.” Basso will have further checks in Italy. He will be operated as soon as possible.

Basso’s withdrawal will hurt the Tinkoff Saxo Bank team badly. Teammate Alberto Contador said it was hard for him. The two completed 60 percent of their training programme together this year. Contador said that his teammate’s illness will give him an extra motivation. He said, “You can be sure that we will fight for the yellow [jersey] to bring him the yellow in Paris.”

The Telegraph: Tour de France 2015: Ivan Basso reveals he has testicular cancer and quits race for surgery

Ivan Basso announced that he had to quit the Tour the France. He was involved in a crash on day five. His saddle hit his left testicle and he felt pain after that, online mobile news report. Tinkoff-Saxo’s Italian climber will have surgery in Italy very soon. The 37-year-old would have been one of Alberto Contador’s key assistants in the mountains.

Contador loses team support, hurting his chances badly. Probably the least of his worries now (Photo: GI)

Basso learned that he had this condition just hours before the press conference of the competition’s first day off. He said, “On stage five, I had a small crash but in the crash I touched my testicle on the saddle and for a few days, I felt a small pain. Yesterday we spoke with the doctor of the Tour de France and we decided to go to make a special analysis in the hospital and the examination gave me bad news. I have a small cancer in the left testicle.”

He added, “It’s easy to understand that I have to stop and go back to Italy. Our doctor is in contact with the specialist in Italy to fix the operation for as soon as possible. Of course I can’t say more details because we discovered this just two hours ago, but I have to leave.”

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