Tour de France Prologue winner Fabian Cancellara has called a halt to his participation in the race, deciding to return to Switzerland to be with his wife as she nears the birth of their second child.
The Swiss rider already indicated that he could do so, and has now taken the decision to depart the Tour after a campaign which yielded that prologue win and seven days in the yellow jersey.
“The decision to go back home is harder than you might expect,” he said in a team statement issued several minutes ago. “Up to now the Team has had a very good Tour de France. We won a stage, had the yellow jersey for more than a week, we lead the Teams Classification and we have four riders in the top twenty of the GC. Most of all, we could show the cycling world that we are not just a group of nine strong individual riders, but a real team.
“The atmosphere within this group is amazing. All of this makes it hard to abandon here. On the other hand, all of my teammates and directors understand and agree with my decision.”
Cancellara has had somewhat disrupted season, crashing out of the Tour of Flanders and suffering multiple fractures to his collarbone. This brought his Classics campaign to an end, but he was able to heal up and build the necessary form to take the prologue.
He has eleven days of the Tour de France in his legs and in addition to being with his family, he’ll also train hard to build on that form and be in top shape for the Olympic Games. He won the time trial in 2008 and was second in the Olympic road race, moving up a slot after Davide Rebellin (Italy) was disqualified.
“I am not only a bike rider,” he said, explaining his priorities. “I am also a husband and father with another baby on the way. It is my personal wish to be present when my wife Stefanie gives birth to our second child. That “trophy” is more important than another Tour stage win or an Olympic medal. I already need to thank my wife for her patience with me during the last month in her pregnancy that has been difficult at times. The least I can do is to assist her in these difficult days.”