Fabian Cancellara

Infobox Cyclist
ridername = Fabian Cancellara


image_caption = Cancellara in 2007
fullname = Fabian Cancellara
nickname = Spartacus
Tony Montana
dateofbirth = birth date and age|mf=yes|1981|3|18
country = SUI
height = height|m=1.85
weight = convert|80|kg|lb st|abbr=on|lk=on
currentteam = Team CSC Saxo Bank
discipline = Road
role = Rider
ridertype = Time-Trialist/Classics specialist
amateuryears = 2000
amateurteams = Mapei "(stagiare)"
proyears = 2001–2002
2003–2005
2006–
proteams = Mapei
Fassa Bortolo
Team CSC Saxo Bank
majorwins = Olympic Time Trial Champion (2008) flagicon|SUI Swiss Time-Trial Champion (2002, 2004,
:2005, 2006, 2007, 2008)Tour de France, 3 stages Paris-Roubaix (2006)
Milan-Sanremo (2008) Tirreno-Adriatico (2008)
Points jersey, Tour de Suisse (2008)
updated = March 18, 2008

Fabian Cancellara (born March 18, 1981 in Wohlen bei Bern) is a Swiss professional road bicycle racer for UCI ProTeam Team CSC. A time trial specialist, he has been two time World Time Trial Champion and is the current Olympic gold medalist. He is also a winner of Paris-Roubaix, Tirreno-Adriatico, Milan-Sanremo and two prologues of Tour de France.

Cancellara and his wife Stefanie have one daughter, Giuliana.

Career

Early years

Cancellara was born in Wohlen bei Bern, a municipality near the city of Berne, in 1981 to an Italian mother and Swiss-German father. He discovered cycling at the age of 13 after falling in love with an old family bike that he found in the garage and immediately gave up football to concentrate on cycling. [ [http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/summer08/fanguide/athlete?athlete=54250 ESPN - Fabian Cancellara - Olympics Athletes - 2008 Summer Olympics - Beijing, China] ]

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. [ [http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/specials/olympic_games_2008/portraits/The_Swiss_Spartacus_gears_up_for_success.html?siteSect=23326&sid=9322995&cKey=1216729401000&ty=st The Swiss Spartacus gears up for success - swissinfo.ch] ] 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 (Mapei)

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 like Filippo Pozzato, Michael Rogers and Bernhard Eisel. [ [http://www.cyclingnews.com/riders/2002/interviews/mapei02.shtml Mega Mapei wants to regain top spot in '02 - cyclingnews.com] ] Giorgio Squinzi, the head of Mapei firm, later said in an interview with the 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 the doping was even worse than among professionals. Squinzi also said that Cancellara was going to be "The future Miguel Indurain". [ [http://www.dailypeloton.com/displayarticle.asp?pk=2473 MAPEI'S BOSS SQUINZI COMMITTED TO FIGHTING DOPING (By Fabio) dailypeloton.com] ] During the two seasons he spent in Mapei, Cancellara used his time trialling skills to great effect by winning several individual time trials and a total of eleven victories.

2003-2005 (Fassa Bortolo)

Following the cessation of sponsorship of Mapei at the end of 2002, Cancellara switched to Fassa Bortolo to work as a leadout man for Alessandro Petacchi but also managed to win the prologues of the big races Tour de Romandie and Tour de Suisse and a time trial at the Tour of Belgium. 2004 was Cancellara's 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. He also won an individual time trial at the Tour de Luxembourg and bunch sprints at Setmana Catalana and Tour of Qatar.

In 2005, Cancellara was one of the favourites for the Paris-Roubaix, but a flat tire 46 kilometers from the finish line [ [http://www.letour.fr/stf/roubaix/2005/us/course.html BOONEN KING OF THE CLASSICS] , "A.S.O.", 2005] 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. He also won a stage at the Paris-Nice and the individual time trials of Setmana Catalana and Tour de Luxembourg, where he finished second overall with the same time as the winner, Laszlo Bodrogi.

2006 (Team CSC)

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 2006 Paris-Roubaix he said he had never been better prepared [ [http://www.team-csc.com/results.asp?r_id=651 Cancellara: Never Been Better Prepared] , "Team-CSC"] 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 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 [ [http://www.letour.fr/2006/PRX/LIVE/us/100/index.html Timely victory for Siwtzerland’s Cancellara] , "A.S.O.", April 9, 2006] he kept on expanding his lead for the remainder of the race [ [http://www.letour.fr/2006/PRX/LIVE/us/100/depeches.html The race] , "A.S.O.", April 9, 2006] finishing one and a half minutes ahead of the riders closest to him. He became only the second Swiss winner of the Paris-Roubaix, following Heiri Suter in 1923. During the season he also won the indidividual 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.

2007 (Team CSC)

After a slow start to the season, Cancellara hit form in June, winning 3 separate 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 with a time of 8 minutes and 50 seconds. He defeated Andreas Kloden of Team Astana by 13 seconds. 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 Compiegne, France, catching and overtaking a breakaway group of four in the dying 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 52 seconds over Laszlo Bodrogi. [ [http://www.cyclingnews.com/road/2007/worlds07/?id=results/worlds073 www.cyclingnews.com presents the World Championships ] ]

2008 (Team CSC Saxo Bank)

Cancellara won the prologue of Tour of California ahead of Olympic gold medalist Bradley Wiggins in his first race of the season. He managed his losses in the mountain stage to San José and was second overall before the final time trial but due to fatigue he finished fourth overall. He then won the second edition of Italian Monte Paschi Eroica ahead of Alessandro Ballan, winner of the 2007 Ronde van Vlaanderen. During the Tirreno-Adriatico he proved his improvement in stage races and won the overall classification and the individual time trial to Recanati. Just a few days later in the Milan-Sanremo, Cancellara broke away from a leading group in the final kilometres to win the Milan-Sanremo classic monument race. In the 2008 edition of Paris-Roubaix, Cancellara finished 2nd behind Tom Boonen in a sprint finish at the Roubaix velodrome, but just ahead of Alessandro Ballan.

In preparation for the second half of the season Cancellara also 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, which was won by Stefan Schumacher, who later on turned out to have tested positive for EPO, and helped his teammate Carlos Sastre winning the overall classification. In the Olympic Road Race in Beijing, Cancellara finished 3rd, winning the bronze medal, after Spaniard Samuel Sanchez (gold) and Italian Davide Rebellin (silver). 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 6 man uphill lead group sprint. [ [http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/10-speed/10-speed/2008/08/fabian-cancellaras-incredible-ride/ Fabian Cancellara’s incredible ride to bronze - by Dave Luecking] ] He later won the Olympic Individual Time Trial, beating CSC-Saxo Bank teammate, Gustav Erik Larsson.

Career highlights

;1998
*1st (Gold), World Junior Championship Individual Time Trial;1999
*1st (Gold), World Junior Championship Individual Time Trial;2000
*2nd (Silver), World U23 Championship Individual Time Trial;2001
*1st, Overall and Prologue, Tour of Rhodes ;2002
*SUI 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 ;2003
*1st, Prologue, Tour de Suisse
*1st, Prologue and Points Classification, Tour de Romandie
*1st, Stage 4, Tour of Belgium ;2004
*SUI National Time Trial Champion
*1st, Prologue and 109th Overall, Tour de France
*1st, Stage 1, Setmana Catalana
*1st, Stage 4, Tour de Luxembourg
*1st, Stage 4, Tour of Qatar;2005
*SUI National Time Trial Champion
*3rd (Bronze), Time Trial World Championship
*1st, Stage 4, Paris-Nice
*1st, Stage 4, Tour de Luxembourg
*1st, Stage 5, Setmana Catalana
*128th Overall, Tour de France;2006
* 1st (Gold),
*SUI National Time Trial Champion
*1st, Paris-Roubaix
*1st, Prologue (ITT), Volta a Catalunya
*1st, Stage 5 (ITT), Tirreno-Adriatico
*1st, Overall, Danmark Rundt (and Stage 2 and 5 wins);2007
*
*SUI National Time Trial Champion
* Prologue - Stage 7
*1st, Prologue Tour de France
*1st, Stage 3 Tour de France
* Prologue
*1st, Prologue Tour of Switzerland
*1st, Stage 9 Tour of Switzerland;2008
* 1st, Prologue, Tour of California
* 1st, Monte Paschi Eroica
* 1st Overall, Tirreno-Adriatico
** 1st, (ITT)
* 1st, Milan-Sanremo
* 2nd, Paris-Roubaix
* 1st, Stages 7 and 9, and Points classification, Tour de Suisse
*SUI National Time Trial Champion
* Champion
* Bronze medal

Footnotes

External links

* [http://www.fabiancancellara.ch/ Official site]
* [http://www.team-csc.com/person_profiles.asp?p_id=102 Team CSC profile]
* [http://www.trap-friis.dk/cykling/switzerland.Cancellara.htm Trap-Friis profile]
* [http://www.cyclingpost.com/profiles/csc/article_001960.shtml Fabian Cancellara profile]
*Cyclingwebsite|703

Persondata
NAME= Cancellara, Fabian
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=
SHORT DESCRIPTION=Road bicycle racer
DATE OF BIRTH= 1981-03-18
PLACE OF BIRTH=Wohlen bei Bern, Switzerland
DATE OF DEATH=
PLACE OF DEATH=