His suspension ended on 24 October 2008, and he returned to racing two days later in the Japan Cup, where he placed a close third behind Damiano Cunego and Giovanni Visconti.

He grew up next door to Claudio Chiappucci, a former three-time stage winner in the Tour de France who was suspended for two years after being proven guilty of doping several times.

[citation needed] In his youth he fiercely competed with fellow Italian riders Giuliano Figueras and especially Danilo Di Luca who proclaimed he would have won the under-23 World Championship himself had it not been for the team tactics.

His attack on the Bastille Day stage prompted a five-man break-away which rode for the victory, but Basso crashed on a mountain descent and was forced to abandon the race.

Apart from the individual time trial stages, Basso had only lost around a single minute to winner Lance Armstrong in the 2003 Tour, and he was not short of new team offers.

Basso's weakness was the time trial and before the 2004 season he and teammate Carlos Sastre trained in a wind tunnel at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to improve their aerodynamics and positioning on the bike.

Basso looked impressive in the 2004 Tour de France, winning stage 12 ahead of eventual winner Lance Armstrong, his first victory since 2001.

By both focusing on winning the Giro and the Tour, he was going against the trend of only aiming for one big race a season, a tactic most notably employed successfully by Lance Armstrong.

[8] Basso wore the pink jersey as leader of the General classification in the Giro d'Italia until severe stomach problems caused him to lose the lead on stage 13 on the Passo delle Erbe.

No longer dangerous to the other main riders, Basso decided to continue in the race with the objective of winning individual stages.

He also won the 18th stage, a time trial, ahead of teammate David Zabriskie, demonstrating the improvement he had made in this area.

He lost a collective 3:47 over two time trial stages, as Basso placed second overall in the Tour, 4:40 behind Lance Armstrong.

After the last stage of the race, Basso declared that he would continue along his pre-season plan to also ride the Tour de France.

[13] On 27 October 2006, Basso was acquitted of any involvement in the Operation Puerto events by the committee, due to insufficient evidence.

The announcement was made in Austin, Texas, and Basso joined the team on 3 December 2006 for the first unofficial training camp.

[16] On 24 April 2007, Basso was suspended by Discovery Channel when the Italian National Olympic Committee (CONI) reopened his case.

Basso requested to leave the team citing "personal reasons related to the re-opened investigation by the Italian National Olympic Committee (CONI)."

After having a good start over the first 2 weeks sitting 5th overall, Basso struggled on stages 16 and 17 after being dropped on the final descents, and later finished 7th overall.

[24] In July 2015, Basso was diagnosed with testicular cancer and immediately withdrew from the Tour de France to seek treatment in Italy.

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.

[27] However, after Basso had talks with the team it was announced that he would retire from competition the following month, whilst remaining with Tinkoff–Saxo in a management role.

He has now purchased land in his home town to start a blueberry farm where he hopes to employ locals as well as make an investment for his retirement from cycling as the future of the European economy is uncertain.