It's Basso Time

We have had our first major moment of the Giro d'Italia and, perhaps, of this road cycling season!

We have been waiting for Ivan Basso to declare himself as OBL's successor, and perhaps he did just that (history will tell) in the 8th stage of the Giro (not to be missed later Sunday on OLN-TV; 5 p.m. ET).
Basso is now in the maglia rosa. The Team CSC leader owns a 1:34 leads, thanks to what must have been a spectacular display of climbing at the close of the 171km stage run from Civitanova Marche to the 1,289-meter summit finish at Maielletta-Passo Lanciano (do you just love these names?!).

Here's how it developed, according to VeloNews:
Damiano Cunego attacked 4km from the finish.
Basso latched onto the Lampre-Fondital rider's wheel, and then mercilessly dropped the 2004 Giro champion on the 12.3km ascent.
Basso clocked in at 4:04:19 AND earned a 20-second time bonus.
Cunego was next at 0:30, out-sprinting Spaniard Jose Gutierrez (Phonak) to take the second-place time bonus.
Gilberto Simoni seventh at 1:15, Danilo Di Luca eighth at 1:32, and defending champion Paolo Savoldelli of Discovery Channel 15th at 2:20.
Previous leader Sergei Honchar (T-Mobile) lost 2:34 (2:54, if you count Basso's bonus) to drop to fifth overall.
Gutierrez jumped into the second spot on GC, 1:34 behind Basso.

Here's what Basso had to say about his strategy:
"When Cunego attacked I just asked [Carlos] Sastre to go faster, because I did not want to do the first attack."
Sastre set a blistering pace during the early portions of the 8.4 percent average gradient climb and caused Savoldelli and Di Luca to pop off of the lead group.
Basso caught Cunego (see Graham Watson's photo above) and, after a short pause, took over.
Said Basso:
"I wanted to do the counter-attack. After that I didn't know what happened with Cunego because I did not look behind. I knew he was not there, but not how far back. I just wanted to win by as much as possible."

Is that not a classic comment?
"I did not look behind. I knew he was not there."

As for Savoldelli, how about this admission:
"I suddenly understood that I was not super. With the first acceleration I was over my limit. [Tom] Danielson gave me great help at that point, but I couldn't do anything else. I was not tired physically, but I was not brilliant."

And Danielson:
"It was a hard day for us. I was behind on the climb, then I had to chase up to Savo' and do work. Sastre was really strong. CSC was really strong.
"But it's still a long ways to Milan."

Overall, after 8 stages:
1. Ivan Basso (I), CSC, 31:41:17
2. José Gutierrez Cataluna (Sp), Phonak, at 1:34
3. Damiano Cunego (I), Lampre, at 1:48
4. Paolo Savoldelli (I), Discovery Channel, at 2:35
5. Serhiy Honchar (Ukr), T-Mobile, at 2:43
6. Danilo Di Luca (I), Liquigas-Bianchi, at 2:48
7. Gilberto Simoni (I), Saunier Duval, at 3:20
8. Giampaolo Caruso (I), Liberty Seguros, at 3:23
9. Tom Danielson (USA), Discovery Channel, at 3:31
10. Rubiera Vigil José Luis (Sp), Discovery Channel, at 3:39