Fabian Cancellara is an ex-professional cyclist who raced from 2001 to 2016 for Mapei, Fassa Bortolo, CSC and Trek.
One of a select trio of riders to have won Paris-Roubaix and the Tour of Flanders three times, alongside arch rival Tom Boonen and Johan Museeuw, he is the only racer who can add the Strade Bianche triple to that glittering statistic – first across the line in Siena at four year intervals between 2008 and 2016.
"Spartacus" was also a formidable time trialist, arguably the finest male ever against the clock. Four times world champion, twice Olympic champion – plus silver in the road race at Beijing 2008 – his final race as a professional cyclist came in the TT at the Rio Olympics in 2016, where he triumphed over second-placed Tom Dumoulin by a staggering 47 seconds.
Seven of his eight Tour de France stage wins came in time trials or prologues, whilst his sole road stage victory in 2007 was one of the all-time greats, taking a flyer from the bunch in the final kilometre and holding off the charging sprinters by metres at the line.
Cancellara also won three Vuelta a España stages, as well as Milan-San Remo (2008) and overall GC at Denmark Rundt (2006), Tirreno-Adriatico (2008), Tour de Suisse (2009) and Tour of Oman (2010).
Alongside various business interests – and being a Cyclingnews columnist, of course – Cancellara is a founder of the Tudor Pro Cycling team, currently racing at UCI Pro Team level.
