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A recovering Fabian Cancellara will start the Tour of Flanders, but will likely ride in a team support role.

by VeloNews.com

• March 31, 2009
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Reigning Olympic time trial champion Fabian Cancellara is expected to start Sunday’s Tour of Flanders despite coming off an injury-plagued spring that forced him to forfeit a defense of his title at Milan-San Remo.
 
Cancellara has suffered a string of illnesses, including an early exit from the Tour of California, and then a shoulder injury that forced him to miss nearly two weeks of training in early March.
 
Earlier this year, Cancellara said winning the Tour of Flanders was one of his top goals of the season.
 
The big Swiss rider is part of the team’s eight-man roster for Sunday, but team officials say he’s not expected to be back in top shape to vie for victory in the punishing course over steep, cobblestoned climbs.
 
“Even though Fabian is not in top shape to fight for victory, he still be useful to the team,” Saxo Bank sport director Lars Michaelsen told the Belgian daily Het Nieuwsblad. “He can play an important role because he knows the course, the distance and its secrets.”
 
Saxo Bank is expected to rally around an on-form Karsten Kroon, who snuck into the winning breakaway in Saturday’s E3 Prijs Vlaanderen to finish fifth.
 
Another key rider missing for Saxo Bank’s northern classics team is Stuart O’Grady, who crashed out of Milan-San Remo.
 
Saxo Bank for Tour of Flanders
 
Kurt-Asle Arvesen, Lars Bak, Matti Breschel, Fabian Cancellara, Matthew Goss, Frank Høj, Kasper Klostergaard and Karsten Kroon.