Cancellara eyes Flanders

Fabian Cancellara’s list of “must-wins” is growing shorter by the season.

Just in 2008, the self-styled Spartacus added Milan-San Remo and the Olympic time trial gold medal to his career victories that already includes Paris-Roubaix, two world time trial championships and runs in the yellow jersey at the Tour de France.

So what else left for the 27-year-old Swiss time machine?

“I sort of feel like if I’ve won a race, I’ll tick it off my mental list and aim for something else,” Cancellara said on the CSC-Saxo Bank web page. “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. And my next big goal is the Tour of Flanders.”

Cancellara says his slimmer weight will help him on the bergs of Flanders. He trimmed nearly four kilos off his frame to prepare for the demanding course in Beijing, bulk that Cancellara says he will keep off going into the 2009 spring classics.

And Cancellara isn’t stopping at Flanders.

He says his ultimate goal is to win all five major spring classics – San Remo, Flanders, Roubaix, Liège-Bastogne-Liège and Giro di Lombardia – otherwise known as cycling’s “monuments.”

“I consider it entirely possible that I would be able to win the five big one-day races during the course of my career,” he said. “I feel that by losing a small amount of weight, I could be ready to win in Flanders.”

“If you look at how I won Tirreno-Adriatico this year, and how I did on the big climbs in the three big races and especially my performance at the Olympics with a very hilly route, I don’t it’s unrealistic that I could win them all at some point.”

And what about winning a grand tour or even the Tour de France some day?

Team CSC boss Bjarne Riis said if Cancellara could lose even more weight, he might be considered a grand tour threat, especially considering how well Cancellara performed in the mountains in 2008 en route to helping teammate Carlos Sastre win the yellow jersey.

Cancellara says in the short-term, that’s unrealistic, but doesn’t entirely discount a Tour run at some point of his career.

“There’s often media attention around me and the Tour because 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,” Cancellara said. “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 gonna focus on Ronde van Vlaanderen.”

Cancellara’s victories in 2008
? Olympic time trial, Beijing
? Milano-San Remo (Ita)
? Monte Paschi Eroica (Ita)
? Tirreno-Adriatico – overall and stage victory (Ita)
? Tour de Luxembourg – prologue (Lux)
? Tour de Suisse – two stages and the points competition (Swi)
? Swiss time trial champion (Swi)
? Tour of California – prologue (USA)

* Cancellara could be awarded the final time trial stage of the Tour de France if Stefan Schumacher is officially disqualified. Cancellara finished second behind Schumacher, who later tested positive for CERA

FILED UNDER: Road