The absence of Ivan Basso at the Giro d’Italia pre-race press conference seemed meaningful, but the Italian veteran thoughtfully admitted that he has earned it with below-performances within last several months and once again pointed out that it would be pathetic to call himself a winner candidate of the season’s first grand tour race. The 37-year old Cannondale rider is yet to decide his future in the professional cycling, but revealed that his performance in the Italian three-week affair will be an important factor.

The double Giro d’Italia champion returned to three-week races following over a year long break in last season’s Vuelta a Espana and rode surprisingly well until a freezing cold rain on a dramatic seventeenth stage to Coll de la Gallina forced him out of competition.

This year, however, the 37-year old Italian returned to his recently consequent anonymity and never managed to stay in touch with the best on decisive climbs, as his best result in four stage-races he participated in, was 24th place overall at the Tirreno-Adriatico.

Thus, Basso is aware that he will face a rather limited expectations while lining up at the start of the Giro d’Italia in Belfast today, and his ability to compete with the likes of Nairo Quintana (Movistar), Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha) or fellow veteran Cadel Evans (BMC) would have been regarded as a pleasant surprise.

"An intelligent athlete knows his place and should be able to understand his own limits, so he can try to overcome them. You need that so you don’t get flattened by the passing of time, by the end of a moment in your life," he told Gazzetta dello Sport.

"Why should I have gone to the press conference? What could I have said? I know I'm not at my best but I think I can find a different role. Otherwise I'd be stupid and pathetic if I said I was hoping to win. I know that things have gone differently so far this year."

"I know that people think I'm past my best. I hope it's not true. I'm not riding well but my conscience is clear. I'm still ambitious. I want to have a good Giro. I think I'm competitive and we'll see exactly how much very soon. The Giro always motivates me."

The current contract with Cannondale of the 37-year old Italian expires by the end of this season, and the former Giro d’Italia champion revealed that even though he gave it a lot of thoughts, he is yet to decide his future in the professional cycling.

Basso pointed out, however, that his performance in the Italian grand tour would be one of the most important factors in making the final decision, and that closing any kind of deal with Cannondale manager Roberto Amadio does not bother him.

"I don't know, we'll see," he said.

"I've thought about it a lot and I'm not sure what will happen but a lot will depends on what happens in this race," he said.

"I don’t want to look back. I'm not interested in saying in my career I won this race or that race. I also don’t want to look too far ahead. Whatever happens, it won’t be a problem to reach an agreement with (Cannondale team manager) Roberto Amadio."

While the former Cannondale coach Paolo Slongo left the squad to work with Nibali at Astana, their newly hired trainer has been blamed for underperformances of Italian team’s riders. Basso denied such suggestions, however, and claimed that in terms of preparations everything was done correctly.

"I've done what I had to do. It'll be the first time in my career if an important block of training doesn't work for me. It seems impossible," he said.

"Some parts of my training has changed but that's not the reason why I'm not riding fast. There's no time to look back, it'd only cost me energy that I need or the race. I can take heart from the fact I'm healthy. I'll give it everything in the race and accept whatever the road decides."