In the News: Fabian Cancellara on the comeback trail
Cancellara will make his return at the Tour de Fjords in Norway at the end of May, and will line up at the Tour de Suisse in June
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Fabian Cancellara’s crash at E3 Harelbeke, which saw him grimace his way into a Trek Factory Racing team car with a broken vertebrae, put an abrupt end to his classics campaign. His season, though, is far from over.
The Swiss star will make his return at the Tour de Fjords in Norway at the end of May, and will line up at the Tour de Suisse in June. He’ll be at the Tour de France, too, with an eye on the 14km opening time trial in Utrecht, Netherlands.
“We considered doing California or the Giro [d’Italia], but in the end I’ll restart in the Norway at the Fjords race. I’m happy the decision is taken. I don’t like it very much when things are in the air,” Cancellara said from his home in Bern, Switzerland.
It was a long recovery period, the sort of waiting game that proves deeply uncomfortable for any athlete.
“I didn’t ride my bike for three weeks. I was frustrated and bored, because there was nothing I could do,” he said. “When you crash by your own mistake, you blame yourself. The circumstances of my crash are unclear, I don’t remember much, but there was nothing I could do.”
“This spring obviously was different because of my crash in E3. It was return to sender three weeks earlier than planned. The kids had holiday so we went to Bad Ragaz to get away from everything. I watched Flanders and Roubaix on the television. My off-period started earlier, and everyone was really respecting the fact that I could hardly do anything with two broken vertebrae.”