Fabian Cancellara, whose 2015 season suffered two major setbacks when he fractured vertebrae at the E3-Harelbeke in March then again when leading the Tour de France in July, crashed once more during Trek Factory Racing’s training camp earlier this week, with the incident captured by a camera mounted on his bike's handlebars.
Happily for Cancellara, who is heading into his final season in the peloton, the latest tumble, at a training camp in Spain, didn’t result in injury, in this film originally shot by Eurosport.
> Broken vertebrae put Cancellara out of Flanders and Roubaix
> Cancellara out of Tour de France after crashing in yellow
It was another of the team’s riders, Riccardo Zoidl, who saw his participation in the pre-season get-together end just 30 minutes into the first ride when he crashed and broke his collarbone in four places.
With a crash taking place in the front group, the group behind had already been alerted to the slippery conditions at a roundabout.
“We knew that this roundabout was slippery as 4-5 guys crashed in the group ahead of us and so we took it easy,” said the Austrian.
"I was sliding a little bit, but I could handle it and thought I was safe and then my teammate next to me crashed and went directly into my front wheel and I flipped over. We were not going fast, maybe 10-15km/h, but it was really, really slippery. I think a total of 10 of us crashed there.”
He was due to undergo surgery in Austria yesterday or today.
In a glittering career, Cancellara has won the world time trial championship four times, the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix three times apiece and Milan-San Remo once, and has led the Tour de France in six separate editions of the race.
It was while wearing the yellow jersey that he threaded his way through team cars on a descent to rejoin the peloton after a bike change on Stage 7 of the 2009 Tour de France, a mesmerising performance that can be watched again and again.
> Trek Factory Racing brings Mapei Sport on board
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1 comments
That wasn't a crash. That was just a fall-off.