New management firm but still no team announcement
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Oh, you guys: Fabian Cancellara was clearly enjoying the moment as he raised his fourth gold in the elite men’s time trial. That Aussie victory broke his tie with Australia’s Michael Rogers, making Cancellara the most winningest rider in the elite men’s time trial.(Image credit: Luca Bettini)
Four titles indeed for Fabian Cancellara (Switzerland)(Image credit: kathryn Watt)
Millar, Cancellara and Martin on the podium(Image credit: Riccardo Scanferla)
Fabian Cancellara is back in training after his all-too-short off season. The world champion has still not announced his team for the coming season, but did say that he is changing his management firm. He also took a philosophical look at his life and his season.
Cancellara is expected to join the Luxembourg Pro Cycling Project, but publicly he remains coy on the subject. “My new team will announce my signing in the next few weeks,” he told Blick.ch.
On his blog at SwissOlympic.ch, he added, “In choosing my team, it was very important that it also offered my future perspectives.”
Meanwhile he is changing his management from IMG Schweiz to Pool Position Switzerland AG. “After ten years of good cooperation with IMC, I have looked for a new challenge for the further development of my career and what comes after my career. This young dynamic agency with its exciting composition can guarantee me that.”
Family and sport
On SwissOlympic.ch, the 29-year-old reflected on the past season, and noted that the off-season is getting shorter and shorter. While others have five weeks to “do nothing,” he must give interviews and make appearances. “Actually I would rather hang Christmas lights, but when you are as near the top as I am, then probably there just isn't any off-season any more.”
Turning philosophical, the Swiss rider said that “success changes your life,” but added that “other values are more important to me than being successful. Or being famous. Or rich. You are not a better person, just because you are a champion.”
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He also knows that “basically there are more important things in life than sport.” Right now it is his job, but at some point that will be over. “But what stays forever is the family. Doing something with them means a lot more to me than winning an important race. The family is what counts in life.”
Sports-wise, it was a “really unbelievably successful” year for Cancellara, but also “enormously hectic. Everything went so fast.”
He had several highlights, like winning Paris-Roubaix with his family in the famous velodrome. He also recalled the Tour de France, with “all the ups and downs, all the mixed feelings on the team. Giving up the yellow jersey and then getting it back again.”
It would be very difficult to pick out which of his career wins means the most to him. “My fourth Worlds win, making me the best time triallist of all time. Or the wins in Paris-Roubaix and the Tour of Flanders this year. Or my Olympic victory in Beijing.”
Cancellara has accomplished almost everything possible in cycling. As a child he dreamed of winning the Tour de France, but “I know that I will never fulfil this dream.”
“It is exactly the unattainability, which differentiates a dream from a goal: Goals are reachable, when you fight for them. Dreams are not. Athletes shouldn't dream, but set goals for themselves and fight for them.”
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