Cancellara set to return at the Vuelta a Espana
After breaking two vertebrae in the Tour de France, abandoning the race despite wearing yellow, Cancellara will start the Vuelta.
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Fabian Cancellara (Trek Factory Racing) will make his return to racing at the Vuelta a España, which is set to start August 22, less than 50 days after fracturing his vertebrae at the Tour de France. Cancellara sustained two transverse process fractures in two lower-back vertebrae while wearing the yellow jersey on stage 3 of the Tour.
“The initial plan was to return to racing at the Eneco Tour next week,” said Cancellara in a team press statement. “But it’s too early. I’m still experiencing some pain when I’m doing high intensity, even though I have been training since more than a week with training rides of up to four hours. I’d love to race already, but my body is just not ready yet.”
Cancellara had almost the exact same fracture earlier in the season during the E3 Harelbeke. Two months later, he returned at the Tour de Fjords race in Norway. The start of the Vuelta will mark six and a half weeks since his crash at the Tour de France, a significant difference in time with a much quicker return to racing.
“I’ll be at the start of the Vuelta for the seventh time now,” he continued. “It’s a race that I like: lots of kilometers, hard racing, good roads, and fans that appreciate our sport. Above all, I want to get back into the habit of racing and help our leaders, starting with the team time trial in Marbella. I want to be as good as I can at the worlds. I’ll suffer to get through the first week, but I need competition.”