Fabian Cancellara has vowed to focus on a second Olympic title following the accident at Sunday’s Tour of Flanders that left him with a quadruple fracture in his collar bone and a wrecked spring Classics campaign.
Injury, an unwelcome event in anyone’s life, must be supremely difficult to accept for an athlete in his peak years, horribly aware that his time at the top of the sport is cruelly brief.
If Cancellara is hoping to draw solace from his unenviable situation, he could do worse than consider the comeback of Bradley Wiggins from a similar injury suffered on stage seven of last year’s Tour De France, an event he had spent an entire season training for and for which he was generally considered better prepared than at any time previously.
Accepting his fate with remarkable fortitude, Wiggins began his comeback soon after his crash, and two months later achieved his highest finish in a Grand Tour, a result that capped an impressive return to the sport and spoke volumes about what could have been at the Tour.
Will Cancellara’s absence from Paris-Roubaix, Liege-Bastogne-Liege, Fleche Walloone et al leave us wondering what might have been? The form he shows on his return will do much to decide how history considers 2012. Here again he must hope to emulate Wiggins, who advanced to a silver medal at the world time trial championships (ironically at the expense of Cancellara), third at the Vuelta a Espana, and, most recently, overall victory at Paris-Nice, on his return.
The spring Classics would seem to be over for Cancellara, barring a super human recovery in time for Ardennes Week (remember, this is Spartacus), but the nature of his injury means that his entire season is far from wrecked. With an opportunity to claim a second gold medal at in the road time trial at this summer’s Olympics (he has already familiarized himself with the London parcours) all is far from lost for the Swiss champion.
Tom Boonen’s triumph at the Ronde following Cancellara’s exit with just 60 kilometres remaining should not be diminished by his rival’s misfortune. His victory last Sunday (1) was as much do to with a keen racing intelligence as a rediscovery of his finest form or Cancellara’s visit to hospital. Indeed, Boonen almost reprised Simon Gerrans’ role at Milan-San Remo with Alessandro Ballan playing the part of Cancellara. If Tomeke wins Paris-Roubaix this Sunday, and he will now start as favourite to do so, it will owe as much to form, fortune, and the support of team that has delivered 29 victories since January, as Cancellara’s enforced absence.
People who’ve met Spartacus speak in glowing terms of his character, and he will rely on a positive outlook in the weeks ahead. The loss of Cancellara, like Gilbert’s loss of form, leaves the peloton a poorer place. We should all wish Cancellara a speedy recovery.
