Fabian Cancellara

Fabian Cancellara

Cancellara in 2007
Personal information
Full name	Fabian Cancellara
Nickname	Spartacus[1]
Date of birth	18 March 1981 (1981-03-18) (age 29)
Place of birth	Wohlen, Switzerland
Height	1.86 m (6 ft 1 in)[2]
Weight	80 kg (180 lb; 13 st)
Team information
Current team	Team Saxo Bank
Discipline	Road
Role	Rider
Rider type	Time-Trialist/Classics specialist
Amateur team(s)
2000	Mapei (stagiare)
Professional team(s)
2001–2002 2003–2005 2006–	Mapei-Quick Step Fassa Bortolo Team Saxo Bank
Major wins
Grand Tours Tour de France 7 Stages Vuelta a España 3 Stages Stage Races Tirreno–Adriatico General Classification (2008) Tour de Suisse General Classification (2009) Points Classification (2008, 2009) Tour de Romandie Points Classification (2003) Single-Day Races and Classics National Time-Trial Champion (2002, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008) National Road-Race Champion (2009) Road World Championship Time Trial (2006, 2007, 2009) Paris–Roubaix (2006, 2010) Milan – San Remo (2008) Monte Paschi Eroica (2008) E3 Prijs Vlaanderen (2010) Ronde van Vlaanderen (2010)
Medal record Competitor for  Switzerland Road bicycle racing Olympic Games Gold 2008 Beijing Time trial Silver 2008 Beijing Road race World Championships Gold 2006 Salzburg Time trial Gold 2007 Stuttgart Time trial Gold 2009 Mendrisio Time trial Bronze 2005 Madrid Time trial
Infobox last updated on July 14, 2010

Fabian Cancellara (born 18 March 1981) is a Swiss professional road bicycle racer for UCI ProTour Team Saxo Bank. A time trial specialist, he is a three-time World Time Trial Champion and is the current Olympic gold medalist. He is also a winner of Tour of Flanders, Paris–Roubaix (twice), Milan – San Remo, Tirreno–Adriatico, Tour de Suisse, Monte Paschi Eroica, and four prologues of the Tour de France.

Career

Early years

Cancellara was born in Wohlen bei Bern, a municipality near the city of Berne, Switzerland to Italian parents that had emigrated from San Fele. He discovered cycling at the age of 13 after falling in love with an old family bike that he had found in the garage and immediately gave up football to concentrate on cycling.^[3]

Cancellara's cycling skills began to blossom at an early age, when he impressed as a time trialist and dominated Swiss junior cycling. Yvan Girard, Swiss national junior team coach from 1997 to 2005, was quoted saying that Cancellara was head and shoulders above everyone else in the time trials.^[1] He won the junior World Time Trial Championship in both 1998 and 1999 and at the age of 19 he came in second at the 2000 U-23 World Time Trial Championship, after which he turned professional with Mapei-Quick Step, then one of the strongest teams in the world.

2001–2002

Cancellara rode as stagiaire for the Mapei-Quick Step team in late 2000 before joining the team for the 2001 season as a member of the "Young Riders Project". Cancellara's first victory as a professional came at the prologue of the Tour of Rhodes, were he also won the overall final general classification. For 2002 the Mapei team split into two formations per UCI regulations, the "Top Team" with 25 riders and the GS-III "Gruppo Giovani" (youth group) to develop young talents, which Cancellara joined with other riders including Filippo Pozzato, Michael Rogers and Bernhard Eisel.^[4] Giorgio Squinzi, the head of Mapei firm, later said in an interview with La Gazzetta dello Sport that he took Cancellara and Pozzato all the way from the Junior category to Mapei's top team, in order to let them avoid the Under-23 category where he suggested that doping was even worse than among professionals. Squinzi also said that Cancellara was going to be "The future Miguel Indurain".^[5] During his two seasons with Mapei, Cancellara used his time trialling skills to great effect, winning several individual time trials and a total of eleven victories.

2003–2005

Following the cessation of sponsorship of Mapei at the end of 2002, Cancellara joined Fassa Bortolo to work as a lead-out man for Alessandro Petacchi in 2003. He won the prologues of the Tour de Romandie and the Tour de Suisse as well as a time trial at the Tour of Belgium. Cancellara's break-through season was 2004. He finished fourth in the classic race Paris–Roubaix, and he won the prologue at the Tour de France ahead of Lance Armstrong, earning the yellow jersey which he wore for two stages. He also won an individual time trial at the Tour de Luxembourg and bunch sprints at Setmana Catalana and the Tour of Qatar.

In 2005, Cancellara was one of the favourites for Paris–Roubaix, but a flat tire 46 kilometers from the finish line^[6] meant he finished 8th, almost four minutes behind winner Tom Boonen. Later that year, he came third at the World Time Trial Championship in Madrid. He also won a stage at Paris–Nice and the individual time trials of Setmana Catalana and the Tour de Luxembourg, where he finished second overall with the same time as the winner, Laszlo Bodrogi.

2006

Fabian Cancellara in the 9th stage of the 2007 Tour de Suisse

When the Fassa Bortolo team was discontinued, Cancellara signed a three-year contract with Team CSC, starting from the 2006 season. Before the 2006 Paris–Roubaix he said he had never been better prepared^[7] and by accelerating on the cobblestones in the forest of Arenberg, just less than 100 kilometers from the finish line, he forced a selection of 17 riders to compete for the win. When Discovery Channel rider Vladimir Gusev attacked on the Le Carrefour de l’Arbre cobblestones with 17 kilometers to go, Cancellara followed him, before passing Gusev for a solo break-away. Cancellara quickly gained 30 seconds on the other favourites and riding the last kilometers like a time trial^[8] he kept expanding his lead for the remainder of the race^[9] finishing one and a half minutes ahead of the riders closest to him. He became only the second Swiss winner of Paris–Roubaix, following Heiri Suter in 1923. During the season he also won the individual time trials of Tirreno–Adriatico, Volta a Catalunya and Post Danmark Rundt, where he also won a stage and the overall classification. Later that year, he won the World Time Trial Championships in Salzburg, Austria. He also got an award from BBC Cycling team as the most looked upon and admired cyclist.

2007

After a slow start to the season, Cancellara hit form in June, winning three time trials in Switzerland: the prologue and Stage 9 of the Tour de Suisse, and the National time trial Championships. In the Tour de Suisse he held onto his yellow jersey until Stage 4, where it passed on to teammate Fränk Schleck.

On July 7, Cancellara won the prologue of the Tour de France in London, defeating Andreas Kloden of Astana by 13 seconds. According to online measurement published by www.srm.de his average power output was over 550W. During Stage 2, he was caught up in a very large crash which brought down an estimated thirty riders. He crossed the finish line nursing his left hand but appeared to be fine during the yellow jersey presentation. He subsequently won the third stage in Compiègne, catching and overtaking a breakaway group of four in the final seconds of the stage. Cancellara held the yellow jersey until stage 7, the tour's first mountain stage. On September 27 he won his second UCI Road World Championships Time Trial with an advantage of 52 seconds over Laszlo Bodrogi.^[10]

2008

Fabian Cancellara in the Prologue of the 2008 Tour of California

Cancellara won the prologue of the Tour of California ahead of Olympic track gold medalist Bradley Wiggins in his first race of the season. He then won the second edition of Italian Monte Paschi Eroica ahead of Alessandro Ballan. During the Tirreno–Adriatico he showed his improvement in stage races, winning the individual time trial to Recanati as well as the overall classification. Just a few days later in the Milan – San Remo classic monument race, Cancellara broke away from a leading group in the final kilometres to win. In the 2008 edition of Paris–Roubaix, Cancellara finished 2nd behind Tom Boonen in a sprint finish.

In preparation for the second half of the season, Cancellara won the prologue of the Tour de Luxembourg and two stages of the Tour de Suisse, both stages won with solo attacks a few kilometres from the finish. Despite being unable to win any stage at the Tour de France, he finished second in the last individual time trial behind Stefan Schumacher, who was later found to have tested positive for EPO. Cancellara helped his teammate Carlos Sastre win the overall classification. In the Olympic Road Race in Beijing, Cancellara won the bronze medal behind Spaniard Samuel Sánchez (gold). He produced an audacious and unexpected burst of speed over the last five kilometres to escape a following group of 10, then a chase group of 2, then the leading group of three just inside the last kilometer, bringing the last two chasers with him covering a substantial 21 second gap of time deficit in less than three and a half minutes over 4 kilometers. He finished third in the six man uphill sprint,^[11] behind Davide Rebellin, who was later stripped of the silver medal for a doping offence.^[12] As of January 2010, Cancellara has not been awarded a new medal, and the race is officially considered to have only a gold and a bronze medalist.^[13] Cancellara later won the Olympic Individual Time Trial, beating CSC-Saxo Bank teammate, Gustav Erik Larsson. Cancellara decided not to defend his World Time Trial title in Varese citing mental fatigue.^[14] He was named Swiss Male Athlete of the Year at the Credit Suisse Sports Awards.^[15]

2009

Cancellara won the prologue of the Tour of California for the second year running. However, he then had a dip in form and could not defend his title at the Tirreno–Adriatico while not performing to his usual high level in any of the spring classics. He recaptured his best form at the Tour de Suisse by winning the prologue and staying with the leaders on the mountains to put him in a good position to win the overall on the final time-trial. He did win comfortably by over two minutes in the general classification while also winning the points jersey.^[16] Cancellara won his first national road racing crown on 28 June 2009, outsprinting Mathias Frank at the line^[17]

He placed 1st in stage 1 of the 2009 Tour de France, a 15 km (9.3 mi) individual time trial. In the team time trial (4th stage), he was able to keep the yellow jersey with Lance Armstrong a mere 22 hundredths of a second behind. It was not until the seventh stage, the first true mountain stage, that Cancellara lost the yellow jersey. After falling behind the leaders with less than 10 km (6.2 mi) to go in the stage, he was unable to bridge the gap due to the sharp grade of the Arcalis mountain-top finish. He lost the yellow jersey to Rinaldo Nocentini, falling to 39th place overall.

In the 2009 UCI World Championships, Cancellara was a favourite in both the road race and time trial disciplines. He dominated the time trial event to take the coveted rainbow jersey by over a minute and a half. Despite many considering him one of the strongest riders in the road race, he was unable to convert his form into an unprecedented second rainbow jersey.

2010

At the beginning of the year, Cancellara won the Tour of Oman. On March 27, he won the E3 Prijs Vlaanderen riding away from Tom Boonen and Juan Antonio Flecha in the last 2 kilometres. On April 4 Cancellara became only the 12th cyclist to have ever won the opening three "monuments" of the cycling year (over a full career) when he won the Tour of Flanders with two devastating attacks. The first took place on the Molenberg with over 30 kilometres remaining. Only two-time winner Boonen could follow. The second attack, on the famous Muur van Geraardsbergen managed to shake Boonen who eventually finished in second over a minute behind the Swiss national champion.^[18]

Cancellara repeated his 2006 Paris–Roubaix victory with a vigorous attack over 40 kilometres (25 mi) from the finish, ending the other pre-race favorites Boonen and Juan Antonio Flecha's chances of victory, and Cancellara crossed the line 2 minutes ahead of Thor Hushovd, who took second, and Flecha, who took third.^[19] Cancellara indicated his future goals could include the final two great cycling monuments: Liège–Bastogne–Liège and Giro di Lombardia.^[20]

In the 2010 Tour de France, Cancellara won the 8 km prologue by 10 seconds over the second place finisher Tony Martin. This was the third Tour de France prologue win of his career. Along with claiming the maillot jaune for the stage victory, Cancellara also donned the maillot vert, for leading the points classification. In the individual time trial, Cancellara secured his second stage win of the 2010 Tour de France, again defeating Tony Martin.

Controversy

In June 2010, Cancellara said that claims made in a YouTube video that he had used an electric motor fitted to his bike to assist him during races were "so stupid I'm speechless".^[21] The YouTube video edited together a report by Davide Cassani,^[22] cycling commentator and former professional rider, in which he suggested professional cyclists had used the technology with footage of Cancellara ^[23] The UCI have said that whilst they are not investigating any specific teams or riders, it would review the need for a new bicycle inspection system to detect such cheating.^[23] However, sports scientist Ross Tucker cast doubt on the accusations made by the amateur video editor concerning Cancellara.^[24]

Career highlights

Footnotes

External links

• Official site
• Team Saxo Bank profile
• Trap-Friis profile
• Fabian Cancellara profile
• Fabian Cancellara profile at Cycling Archives