Cancellara targets Flanders

Team CSC Saxo Bank's Fabian Cancellara will be focusing on the victory of the Tour of Flanders next season. "My next big goal is winning Ronde van Vlaanderen," he said. "I consider it entirely possible that I would be able to win the five big one-day races during the course of my career and I feel that by losing a small amount of weight I could be ready to win in Flanders."

The time trial specialist, a two-time world champion of the discipline and winner of Paris-Roubaix as well as Milano-Sanremo, has decided to set new goals for himself. Even though it could be tempting to go for a string of victories in Paris-Roubaix – or something similar – the multiple Tour de France stage winner and Olympic time trial champion needs continuous challenges within the sport.

"I sort of feel like if I've won a race I'll tick it off my mental list and aim for something else. That doesn't mean I don't want to win the big races more than once, but I try to aim for new things all the time," Cancellara said.

The Swiss rider has already won two out of five monuments after his victory in Paris-Roubaix in 2006 and Milan-Sanremo in 2008, but it takes entirely different skills to win Ronde van Vlaanderen, Liège-Bastogne-Liège and the Giro di Lombardia as well. But the Swiss powerhouse has developed some talent in covering the mountains this year, and believes this could be an asset in achieving his new goals.

"If you look at how I won Tirreno-Adriatico this year, how I did on the climbs in the three big races and especially my performance at the Olympics with a very hilly route, I don't think it's unrealistic that I might be able to win them all at some point," he confidently continued.

At 27 years of age, Cancellara could even evolve to be a Grand Tour contender at some point. But he doesn't want to set his goals too high right now: "I said a few years back that winning the Tour would be a dream come true for me. But I also sometimes dream of owning a small island in the Pacific and taking it easy – there's a world of difference from having dreams to setting yourself realistic goals to aim for. That doesn't mean I won't try one day to win the Tour, but that's not on my agenda right now. Now I'm going to focus on Ronde van Vlaanderen," he concluded.