Ivan Basso will wait until after the Liège-Bastogne-Liège on April 24 to decide if he will defend his Giro d'Italia title.
"I will stand at the cross-roads there," Basso told La Gazzetta dello Sport of his pending decision following Liège-Bastogne-Liège. "It's there I will take my decision to race the Giro d'Italia."
The 33-year-old Italian won the Giro for a second time last year ahead of Spain's David Arroyo. He will likely skip it this year to focus on winning the Tour de France in July. He twice finished on the podium of the Tour de France, 2004 and 2005, behind Lance Armstrong. His team-mate, Vincenzo Nibali will instead lead the Liquigas-Cannondale team at the Giro d'Italia.
Basso started his season at the Tour de San Luis stage race in Argentina. He finished the seven-day race 47th overall, 21 minutes and 48 seconds behind winner Chilean Marco Arriagada. He trained at altitude afterwards on the Spanish island of Tenerife and yesterday, raced the Trofeo Laigueglia in Italy.
His spring schedule: The Swiss classics Insubria and Lugano next weekend; Giro del Friuli, Tirreno-Adriatico and Volta a Catalunya in March; País-Vasco, Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège in April.
"The Giro is a national monument. There were ten million fans on the roads last year. For those who love cycling, the Giro is always unique," added Basso. "But cycling is not an individual sport. The team will take the decision of who races it. We will sit down to decide, and the team's interest will prevail."
At the Tour, Basso won the young riders' classification in 2002, won a stage in 2004 and stood on the podium in Paris twice. The overall victory remains his dream.
"Last year, I had just finished a good season, but not excellent and I was driven by the urgency to get a result. Now that pressure is not there. The dream drives me. The Tour has been the dream for my whole career. I've won the Giro, in France I have only been on the podium."