Fabian Cancellara

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Fabian Cancellara

Cancellara at the 2005 HEW Cyclassics.
Personal information
Full name Fabian Cancellara
Date of birth March 18, 1981 (age 26)
Country Flag of Switzerland Switzerland
Height 1.86 m
Weight 80 kg
Team information
Current team Team CSC
Discipline Road
Role Rider
Rider type Time-trialist
Amateur team(s)
2000 Mapei (stagiare)
Professional team(s)
2001-2002
2003-2005
2006-		 Mapei
Fassa Bortolo
Team CSC
Major wins
World Time-Trial Champion (2006)
Tour de France, 1 stage
Paris-Roubaix (2006)
Danmark Rundt (2006)
Flag of Switzerland National Time-Trial Champion
(2002, 2004, 2005, 2006)
Infobox last updated on:
January 15, 2007

Fabian Cancellara (born March 18, 1981) is a Swiss professional road bicycle racer. A time trial specialist, he is the current World Time Trial Champion. In 2006 he also became the only second Swiss winner of the Classic one-day race Paris-Roubaix, following Heiri Suter in 1923.

Contents

[edit] Biography

Cancellara was born in Wohlen by Bern, and already in his junior years, he impressed as a time trialist. In both 1998 and 1999 he won the junior World Time Trial Championship. At the age of 19, he came in second at the U/23 World Time Trial Championship, after which he turned professional with Mapei-Quick Step, then one of the strongest teams in the world.

[edit] 2003-2005 (Fassa Bortolo)

In his first pro-years Cancellara won several smaller races, but when he switched to Fassa Bortolo in 2003, he managed to win the prologues of the big races Tour de Romandie and Tour de Suisse. 2004 was Cancellara definite break-through season. He finished fourth in the classic race Paris-Roubaix, and at the Tour de France he won the prologue ahead of Lance Armstrong, and thus started the race in the yellow jersey. Defending the jersey in the first stage of the race, he lost it after the second stage, handing it to Thor Hushovd.

In 2005, Cancellara was one of the favourites for the Paris-Roubaix, but a flat tire 46 kilometers from the finish line[1] meant he finished 8th, almost four minutes behind winner Tom Boonen. Later that year, he came in third at the World Time Trial Championship in Madrid.

[edit] 2006 (Team CSC)

Fabian Cancellara in the prologue of the 2006 Tour of California
Fabian Cancellara in the prologue of the 2006 Tour of California

When the Fassa Bortolo team was discontinued in the winter of 2005, Cancellara signed a 3-year contract with Team CSC, starting from the 2006 season. Before the Paris-Roubaix 2006 he said he had never been better prepared[2] and following his own acceleration on the cobblestones in the forest of Arenberg, just below 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 surpassing Gusev for a solo break-away. Cancellara quickly gained 30 seconds on the other favourites and riding the last kilometers like a time trial[3] he kept on expanding his lead for the remainder of the race[4] finishing one and a half minute ahead of the riders closest to him.

[edit] Career highlights

Olympic medal record
World Championships
Gold 2006 Salzburg Elite Men's Time Trial
Bronze 2005 Madrid Elite Men's Time Trial
Silver 2000 Plouay U-23 Men's Time Trial
Gold 1999 Verona U-23 Men's Time Trial
2006
2005
2004
2003
2002
  • Flag of Switzerland Switzerland National Time Trial Champion
  • 1st, GP Eddy Merckx
  • 1st, Overall and Stage 4, GP Erik Breukink
  • 1st, Overall and Prologue, Tour of Rhodes
  • ZLM Tour
  • 1st, Stage 1, Österreich Rundfahrt
  • 1st, Stage 3, Ytong Bohemia Tour
2001
  • 1st, Overall and Prologue, Tour of Rhodes
2000
1999
Preceded by
Michael Rogers		 World Time Trial Champion
2006		 Succeeded by
Incumbent

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^ BOONEN KING OF THE CLASSICS, A.S.O., 2005
  2. ^ Cancellara: Never Been Better Prepared, Team-CSC
  3. ^ Timely victory for Siwtzerland’s Cancellara, A.S.O., April 9, 2006
  4. ^ The race, A.S.O., April 9, 2006

[edit] External links


Riders on Team CSC

Kurt Asle Arvesen | Lars Bak | Michael Blaudzun | Matti Breschel | Fabian Cancellara | Íñigo Cuesta | Matthew Goss | Juan José Haedo | Volodymyr Hustov | Allan Johansen | Bobby Julich | Kasper Klostergaard | Alexandr Kolobnev | Karsten Kroon | Marcus Ljungqvist | Anders Lund | Lars Michaelsen | Stuart O'Grady | Martin Pedersen | Luke Roberts | Carlos Sastre | Andy Schleck | Fränk Schleck | Chris Anker Sørensen | Nicki Sørensen | Christian Vandevelde | Jens Voigt |  David Zabriskie
Manager
Bjarne Riis
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