It was impossible not to watch Ivan Basso win a truly extraordinary Giro d'Italia without mixed feelings.

Basso is, arguably, the first rider of the modern era to serve a doping ban and return to his previous level. A case could also be made for Alexandre Vinokourov, though Basso's status as a Grand Tour winner makes him unique.

Basso with his second Giro d'Italia trophy

Previously, the Italian's 2006 Giro victory represented the pinnacle of his career, the peak he'd been ascending gradually towards for several seasons, mainly in the shadow of Lance Armstrong, to whom he'd finished second at the 2005 Tour de France.

A year later, he was expected to step into Armstrong's shoes. A crushing win in the Giro was mission partially accomplished; phase two would be the Tour. It had Basso's name written all over it.

And then, 48 hours before the Tour began in Strasbourg, Basso's world and reputation unravelled in dramatic fashion. In a few hours he went from Tour favourite to being smuggled out of his hotel like a common criminal.

He was bundled into a car, and driven back to Italy, the decision to expel him having been taken by his team, CSC, on the basis of information they had linking him to Operación Puerto, the Spanish blood doping investigation.

Yet, bizarrely, he wasn't initially punished. On the contrary, he signed for Armstrong's old team, Discovery Channel, for 2007. But all the time the net was closing and in the spring, with the Italian Olympic committee (CONI) dogged in their pursuit of riders implicated in Operación Puerto, Basso was presented with the DNA evidence that proved his guilt. Finally he confessed, but to attempted doping - to intending to cheat - rather than actual doping.

That's been his line ever since. He insists his 2006 Giro win was honest. The issue some have with this is that his victory there was so dominant - he had almost ten minutes on José Enrique Gutiérrez, who was also implicated in Operación Puerto - that it raises the question: why, when he was in the form of his life, did he feel it was necessary to seek extra, illegal help?

Some credit to Basso, though. He at least admitted his crime - sort of - and he pledged to come back clean. He enlisted the help of Aldo Sassi, a coach whose reputation hasn't been besmirched, and posted his blood values online.

Sassi, who also coaches Cadel Evans, told Cyclingnews last week that, "if either Ivan or Cadel win the Giro, we'll have the proof that you can win without doping. I totally trust them."

Throughout his ban, Basso insisted he would reach his previous level, to prove it was possible to win major races clean.

Now, you could argue, he's done that. But you didn't have to be a cynic, as you watched Basso's wonderful performance on stage 14 to the summit of Monte Grappa, to recall 2006, and to be struck by an uncomfortable sense of déjà vu.

It was the first time, since his comeback last year, that he resembled the Basso of old. The problem is that, for many, that expression, "the Basso of old," will provoke an ambiguous, or uneasy, reaction.

That's the problem with doping - or attempted doping. The culprit forfeits the right to the benefit of the doubt.

We should be reassured by Sassi's words, and by much else that has happened to clean up the sport - including the expulsion, on the eve of the Giro, of Basso's Liquigas team-mate Franco Pellizotti, on the basis of information from his biological passport.

And it was a great Giro from a racing point of view, from the flat, incident-strewn stages of northern Europe, to the carnage created by the Tuscan dirt roads, to the mass escape in the torrential rain on a marathon stage eleven to L'Aquila.

It's remarkable to remember that Basso seemed out of it after that eleventh stage - and he struggled on the dirt roads, too. But he was brilliant as the race reached its final, critical phase in the mountains. Ultimately, he deserved to win. It's just a shame his victory couldn't be enjoyed and appreciated with unqualified admiration.

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