Monday, December 6, 2010

Ivan Basso In Search of His First Bicycle


Ivan Basso is in search of his first bicycle. The winner of the 2010 Giro d'Italia has made an appeal in a column of of the newspaper "La Provincia di Varese".

"This is the bike that my father brought home one evening. I was four years old, making me the happiest boy in the world," Basso said. "It's the bicycle I used for my first training rides and the one I used in my first rides with the team of Oratorio di Cassano Magnago. I have managed to retrieve all of my other bikes of my career except I cannot find this one. I remember it as if I had one before now: a small, blue, "Asperge". All I do is think about it: for me it has a huge sentimental value because my earliest memories as a rider and my love for cycling are tied to that little blue bicycle."

That bike was for a long time in the cellar of his family, but as so often happens was later donated to a friend.

Basso has a special reward for whomever finds his blue, mini, Asperge: a pink jersey from the 2010 Giro d'Italia with a special dedication.

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