World time trial champion can’t wait for the new season with his new team
Fabian Cancellara is one of the biggest names, if not the biggest name, to be part of the new Leopard-Trek team created around the two Schleck brothers. The World time trial champion is hoping that in the new atmosphere of the Luxembourg team will help him to hit his targets this year.
According to Belga, the Swiss rider wants to go even better than his Ronde van Vlaanderen/Paris-Roubaix double of 2010. Although he is more suited to the cobbled classics, where his awesome power can come into play, he will also be aiming for the races that suit him less well.
“First I’m aiming at the spring classics,” he explained, “up to the Amstel Gold Race. I’ll try in every race to win and we’ll see what happens. What will happen after that, we will wait and see.”
Having spent five years at Saxo Bank (previously CSC), Cancellara took the decision to follow the Schleck brothers to their new team. As he explained though, it was as much about leaving the tutelage of the team’s manager Bjarne Riis as it was about the prospect of Leopard-Trek.
“We had a different vision,” he said of his Danish former boss, “so it was necessary for me to a different path. I was on something entirely new element. Cycling is not only about training and competing in races, it’s much more than that.”
Having already been on the same team as many of the members of his new team Cancellara has now had the chance to spend some time with the rest of them. The World time trial champion is optimistic about the team’s prospects for the upcoming season.
“I really feel we have some big performances coming and I’m looking forward to the season,” he said. “Our team building week in Switzerland was in any case already fun, though we of course also worked hard,”