Shoulder injury threatens RadioShack Nissan competitor
Fabian Cancellara’s chances of defending the Olympic title he took four years ago in Beijing are up in the air tonight, with the Swiss rider stating that he is 50-50 about being able to take part.
He made it into the crucial break in the Olympic road race and appeared to have a chance of taking gold, but misjudged a tight right hand corner inside the final ten kilometres and hit the ground hard.
Cancellara remounted but was unable to hold onto the handlebars with his right hand, prompting concerns that he might have broken his collarbone. He went for medical examination afterwards and, late Saturday evening, confirmed via Twitter that he had not suffered a fracture.
However it is too soon to know if he will be able to race in one of his biggest season targets, Wednesday’s race against the clock.
The Swiss Olympic Team gave further details from its own account. “Cancellara has a shoulder contusion and hemorrhage in the muscles,” it stated. “His participation in the time trial will be decided later.”
The RadioShack Nissan rider previously suffered mutiple fractures to his collarbone when he crashed in April’s Tour of Flanders.
He won the prologue in the Tour de France and held the yellow jersey for several days.
Four years ago he snagged a gold medal in the time trial and took third in the road race. The latter was subsequently elevated to second when the runner-up Davide Rebellin tested positive.