Italian racer Ivan Basso is a real threat to Giro d'Italia leader Joaquim Rodriguez's bid to win the race, the Spanish rider for Russia's Katusha team told RIA Novosti on Monday.
Rodriguez regained the leader's pink jersey from the Canadian Ryder Hesjedal with a second-place finish in the 15th stage in the Alps, and is now 30 seconds ahead of Garmin-Barracuda rider Hesjedal.
Basso, of UCI ProTeam, is third in the general classification, 1 minute 22 seconds behind Rodriguez with six stages remaining.
"Basso has shown his strength and I would say that I couldn't respond to his attack immediately. I think he's getting stronger every day," Rogriguez said.
"On the 15th stage I achieved a good result in cold and rainy weather. I worried that that would influence me, but in the end I coped with it, despite the fact that, to be honest, I don't like that sort of weather."
Italian rider Matteo Rabottini won the stage, but Rodriguez dismissed suggestion he had backed off to safeguard his overall lead.
"I have only one [stage] win at the Giro on my record, so I wouldn’t squander such an opportunity," Rodriguez said.
"I did everything to win. For a moment it seemed to me I had shaken him off, but he held on. Then Rabottini was very strong in the sprint and deservedly won such a great stage."
Rodriguez, 33, joined Katusha in 2010 and won the eighth stage of the Tour de France that year. In a racing career stretching back to 2001, he has also won the 2007 Spanish road race title, the mountains classification at the 2005 Vuelta a Espana and the La Fleche Wallonne race in Belgium in April 2012.
Basso, 34, won the Giro d’Italia in 2006 with the CSC team.
Monday is a rest day before the race continues Tuesday on the medium mountain, 173-kilometer 16th stage.
