BAVENO, Italy — Former Giro d'Italia winner Ivan Basso said he has paid his penalty after serving a two-year doping suspension and is ready to challenge the world's top riders — including Lance Armstrong.
The 2006 Giro champion will make his return to professional cycling Oct. 26 in the Japan Cup. His main objective for next season will be the Giro, the second most prestigious stage race after the Tour de France.
That will pit the Italian rider against Armstrong, who announced this week that he will ride in the three-week Giro for the first time as part of his own comeback after a three-year retirement.
"I paid for something that I did and I am at ease with that," Basso said after cycling into a news conference at a luxury lakeside hotel wearing the jersey of his new Liquigas team.
"The feeling of embarrassment will remain for some time, but the guilt has been washed away by this two-year ban. I lived an incredibly hard period in my life. I was consumed by guilt and embarrassment. I was tormented for an entire year, but then the bike became my companion again."
Italian authorities suspended Basso in 2006 after he confirmed that frozen blood found in Spain as part of the Operation Puerto investigation was his. Basso has always maintained that though he gave his blood to Eufemiano Fuentes — the Spanish doctor at the center of cycling's biggest doping investigation — he never used it.
Basso, who will turn 31 next month, finished second at the Tour de France in 2005 — the last of seven straight Tours won by Armstrong, who often praised Basso. The Italian cyclist joined Armstrong's Discovery Channel team after the American's retirement.
Though he has not raced competitively for two years, Basso has continued to train and said he has cycled more than 31,000 miles since his ban started.
"I'm fortunate to have another chance to race and to show everybody that what I did in the first part of my career was legitimate," Basso said. "I know some people still feel betrayed, but I think most will give me another chance and will believe in me again."
Part of earning back that trust is a charm offensive that includes a new Ivan Basso Web site. The site will launch Oct. 24 — the day Basso's ban officially expires — and the Italian will post all his workouts on it so fans can follow his progress.
For more than a year, Basso has been in the sport's testing program, and Liquigas is promising extraordinary measures to guarantee its riders are clean.
"It was our right, and to some extent our duty, to give another chance to this great Italian athlete and man," said Paolo Dal Lago, the chairman of Liquigas Sport. "Things have changed and there is a desire to have clean cycling. There is a problem, but it can be defeated and we're available and want to do more in the fight against doping."
Basso this week agreed to pay a $15,000 fine as part of a plea bargain agreement to close a case with judicial authorities investigating him for doping.
"I am happy to put all of this behind me because it is not easy having prosecutors calling you to appear in one court or another," Basso said.
Basso's schedule for next season includes the Tour of Argentina, Tour of California and Tirreno-Adriatico as well as many single-day races as he works up to the 100th anniversary edition of the Giro, which is scheduled for May 9-31. Basso will skip the Tour de France, which begins July 4, but will race in the Spanish Vuelta in September and, if chosen, will ride for Italy in the 2009 world championship in Switzerland.
"All my dreams from 2006 are still there and top among those is to get back the Giro's pink leader's jersey," Basso said. "That won't be easy, though. Clearly as soon as Armstrong said that he would race in the Giro he became the favorite."