As the 2013 season was drawing to a close Italian squad Cannondale was widely rumoured to have entered talks with often outspoken Russian Oleg Tinkov, who was said to be interested in assuming ownership of the team.

Eventually the talks stalled, but before they came to a complete halt, though, speculation was rife that Ivan Basso might switch to ride in the service of his former teammate Vincenzo Nibali at Astana, but Basso has since dispelled such gossipy tales.

“During the Vuelta, I said that if I could ever imagine myself working for another rider, then it would be Vincenzo [Nibali],” Basso told Cyclingnews.com. “But that was a suggestion, a sort of ‘fantasy cycling’ and certainly not something that was necessarily a reality because I’ve raced for this team for many years,” Basso added. “This team has a lot of faith in me and I still feel like I can be the leader of this team. There has never been any desire on my part to leave.”

Originally Basso had identified the Giro d’Italia as his main target for the 2013 season, but a perineal cyst compelled him to withdraw from the event on the eve of the race. Basso would return to some semblance of form at the Vuelta a España but was forced to abandon on a Pyrenean stage due to hypothermia.

Ivan Basso has won the Giro twice and twice finished on the Tour de France podium. Next year he plans to participate in two as yet unidentified Grand Tours but acknowledged that overall victory may be beyond his powers.

“In all honesty, if the strongest guys in the world, like Froome and Nibali, are all there on the start line at a Grand Tour, then I’m not on the same level. I can fight for a place in the top 5 but not for the overall win. But when they’re not all there, I can still be up there with the best. And the beauty of cycling is that it’s not mathematical: if you’re up there with the best at all, then you have a good chance to seize the moment.”