After successful treatment to remove a cancerous tumour from his left testicle, Ivan Basso is recovering well.

“I’m good, I’m happy, I have recovered quickly and I’m happy to go back home,” the Tinkoff-Saxo rider said during an interview published in Gazzetta dello Sport. “I will do a series of check-ups in the next few days but everything went well and I’m happy.”

Basso was diagnosed with seminoma, a malignant neoplasm that is one of the most treatable and curable forms of cancer. He underwent surgery on Wednesday at the Hospital San Raffaele, performed by Doctor Francesco Montorsi, the director of the Urology Unit.

“The doctor reassured me,“ Basso told the Gazzetta dello Sport before leaving the hospital on Thursday. “Now we have to wait. There are other exams to do but there is a lot of optimism, and I am the first. I am coming back home happy and relieved.”

Basso says he is hopeful he can return to the pro peloton and says he has never lost optimism since he found out he had cancer.

“It is a time where a lot of emotions have happened, but I never lost optimism, or a smile, and this is what helped me the most, with the affections of my family, everyone made me feel their closeness. I was pleased.”