Fabian Cancellara, one of the most accomplished classics riders and time trialists of all time, recently sat down with Fausto magazine in Austin, Texas, to talk about life after racing and building his Switzerland-based team, Tudor Pro Cycling, from the ground up.
Fabian, how did the Tudor partnership begin? You know, it’s always a small world. We had this Swiss racing academy team, and we thought that it would be nice one day to have a Swiss professional cycling team with the Swiss structure and so on. So, we sat at the table for one and a half hours…but then it was five hours. It was nice to have spoken just about life, about just general things and not about numbers and contracts and so on. And they have seen that there’s something to create together. And now we are going into the fourth season, and we have done great things. I think we’re still on a progression with growth and learning.
You’re arguably one of the best classics riders of all time. How do you manage the team? I mean, we have structure, we have people, we have staff, we have mechanics, we have directors, we have innovation, we have coaches. I don’t want to interfere with tactics. Everyone has his role, everyone has his function, and I’m not sitting in a car and commanding. It feels bad to do that. I want to be there where I am and helping, moving things on. I want to be around when things are not good, when things are not moving. They don’t need to copy what I achieved. I have been a different type of rider. I mean, when you see with van der Poel, with Tadej, with those riders, with that caliber of racing, we always try to get our spots when we can.
Do you miss racing? No, but I still like to ride my bike! Riding with the guys [on the team] is too difficult. They’re too fast and I won’t enjoy it at my level. If I want to go a bit harder, I do it for myself, but not for anyone else. And for me, it’s a life balance!
Do you still feel competitive? Potentially. But then as soon as you hit the climb, it’s finished. It’s a reality. I’m also much heavier. I don’t train that much. I have done the quality of the routine. I mean, now it’s also 10 days, almost no real biking. In the end, it’s not about how good I am.
FULL INTERVIEW IN ISSUE 009
