basso looked impressive in the 2004 tour de france, winning stage 12 ahead of eventual winner lance armstrong, his first victory since 2001. his overall time was hurt by relatively poor time trial results: he only finished 8th on the stage 16 time trial up the mountain alpe d'huez, where he was caught and passed by armstrong, and 6th in the stage 19 time trial. in all, he lost a combined 5 minutes and 13 seconds in the two stages. his time loss on the last time trial effectively sent basso down to third place behind andreas klöden, and basso finished 6:40 behind overall winner armstrong. he ended the season, participating with the italian national team in the 2004 world championships in verona, helping fellow italian luca paolini get a bronze medal. in the off-season, team csc was in a financial struggle. even as bjarne riis let riders who received superior offers from other teams leave, basso did not move to team discovery channel even though an economically more lucrative contract was proposed.