in july 2015, basso was diagnosed with testicular cancer and immediately withdrew from the tour de france to seek treatment in italy. basso received support from a number of people including lance armstrong. basso made the announcement to the media in those terms: "i have a bad announcement to give to you guys," basso said. "on stage 5, i had a really small crash but in the crash i touched my testicle on the saddle and for a few days, i felt a small pain. yesterday we spoke with the doctor of the tour de france and we decided to go to make a special analysis in the hospital and the examination gave me bad news. i have a small cancer in the left testicle."