Cycling: Fabian Cancellara has achieved everything. He became world champion and Olympic champion. But he also knows what it means to lie on the ground. In an interview, the Swiss advises young athletes to take a mental trainer. After all, they had suffered in the past few months. The problem? For a long time there were no competitions for them because of the corona pandemic. For the athletes that is the worst case scenario. Fabian Cancellara talks about his epidemic year, his hotline for top athletes and the shock of top athletes. The interview was conducted by Andreas Haslauer from the Shortcuts agency.
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Mr. Cancellara, you used to ride more than 30.000 kilometers a year. You have had to stay at home for the past few weeks. Did you miss your work tool?
Fabian Cancellara: “No, because I was on my racing bike almost every day. On my roller trainer. Of course it would have been much nicer in the fresh air and in nature. Enjoying a descent from Mount Ventoux or the Stilfser Joch was not in it. And it wasn't that bad on the roll. You have to keep kicking, otherwise you would fall off. This makes driving on the roller more efficient than outside.”
Why is that so?
Fabian Cancellara: “The so-called junk miles or trash miles – i.e. empty kilometers – don’t exist. There is no unrolling or anything like that. You always pedal, really always.”
Isn't that terribly boring?
Fabian Cancellara: "If I want more action in my own four walls, then I just use a pincer. In the virtual world I can race against whoever in this world or take a leisurely pleasure ride. True to the motto: Everything can, nothing has to.”
You have to keep fit a bit, after all, the Beat the Best Chasing Cancellara races start in the fall. Hobby pedalers have the opportunity to race against you. Although fun and enjoyment are officially the priority, the hobby cyclists naturally only want one thing in the end: to beat you!
Fabian Cancellara: "Let's put it this way: We'll keep planning the races. That depends solely on the further course of the corona virus. The only thing I know is that I really enjoy it all and that I'm already looking forward to the races like a little kid. Of course, like everyone else, I'm ambitious, but I don't want to do it the way I did when I was a professional. Today I'm much more relaxed at the start."
Don't you have a bad feeling about the planning?
Fabian Cancellara: “On the one hand, I want to live up to my responsibility towards my fellow human beings. On the other hand, I don't want to spoil the anticipation of the cyclists who have been looking forward to the race for months. From my own experience, I know only too well what it's like to train towards a specific goal. I don't want to take this goal away from them or from me."
In an interview you once said that everyone needs a challenge...
Fabian Cancellara: “…regardless of whether you are an athlete or a non-athlete. You gradually increase your performance as the event or competition approaches. That's the one. The other thing is that along the way you sharpen your mindset on so many things. I want to give you an example. In 2006, Bjarne Riis, our team manager at Team Saxo Bank at the time, sent us to so-called survival camps in Norway, Denmark and South Africa. He didn't want us to just be good road cyclists. He also wanted us to grow as people with the tasks and challenges. "You have to get out of your comfort zone or it will limit your perspective and freedom," he said.
Almost no professional in the world currently has the opportunity to compete. The European Football Championship was cancelled, as were the Olympics and all other major events.
Fabian Cancellara: “For every single athlete this is the absolute worst case scenario. I imagine it's like I'm swimming somewhere out there in the ocean, but I don't know where to crawl - there's no horizon in sight. I would go crazy. For months I have prepared, suffered and tormented. And now? No goal in sight.”
Why is this so bad for an athlete?
“The athlete aligns everything towards one goal. If his basis for work – and in many cases also his livelihood – is then taken away from him, then he doesn’t know what to do.”
What is your advice? After all, you have achieved everything that can be achieved during your professional career. But at the same time went through everything that one can go through.
“I would advise him two things. First, he should accept the situation. Second, make the most of it. If the athlete follows this, then he has already done two things right. Of course, this all sounds perfectly logical. However, the reality is that many top athletes have been in a state of complete shock for weeks.”
What should athletes avoid at all costs?
"You just shouldn't overexert yourself physically and mentally. Because when it starts again one day, they will lack the substance. There will be athletes who will emerge stronger from the crisis and others will not.”
Michael Phelps, the American swimming star, said: "If that had happened to me, I would have freaked out at the uncertainty. As someone who has been through some really deep bouts of depression and is still dealing with it, I hope and pray that every one of these athletes in this situation gets mental health help.” He even worries that some top athletes might be harming themselves. He speaks of suicide.
"That's why I would advise every top athlete to consult a trustworthy psychologist. Although I don't like the word psychologist that much. "Mental Coach" sums it up better, I think."
Have you ever consulted one during your pro years?
"During my weak phase in 2012, I worked with one. Nothing worked out that year of the epidemic, I fabricated one fall after the other. I was on vacation with my family in Ticino - and somehow I wasn't really there. At least not the head. I couldn't jump in the water with my kids or do wild things with them. I wasn't the jolly dad anymore."
Did you have a burnout?
“I was just mentally exhausted. I was almost depressed. It didn't last for weeks or months, but for days I had the feeling that I would fall into a black hole and stay there. That's why I can only advise every athlete to approach a mental trainer and work with him."
“Athletes are trained to repress. That's why they can deal with insecurities quite well for a certain period of time," said psychologist Valentin Markser in an interview. But the longer the condition lasts, the greater the risk that athletes could be overwhelmed by fear.
"Nobody is perfect. Almost everyone has a backpack to carry. One person still has to deal with his childhood, the other a dismissal or a bereavement. For this reason, everyone - and I mean everyone - should seek help as soon as possible if they realize that they are overwhelmed with this current state of emergency and simply cannot cope. For example, I am currently on the phone with many young athletes and show them ways and means of getting out of their misery.”
What is your advice for the young professionals?
"Don't pay attention to your pulse and your heart rate, but ride a bike because it's the most beautiful sport in the world. Listen to yourself. What do you want to do today? If you have an answer, just do it. Remember, you are human, not a robot.”
One might think that about you: you are a double Olympic champion, four-time world champion and multiple winner of the one-day classics Paris – Roubaix, “Milan – Sanremo” and the legendary Tour of Flanders. But what do you do all day today, apart from mentally supporting young professionals in the crisis?
“I lead a wonderful life with no stress and no travel. At least that was my plan during my active time as a racing cyclist. Now I'm leading a stressful life again with a lot of traveling (laughs). But that's how I chose it. I am happy."
Why are you doing this to yourself?
"Just lying on the sofa is not my thing. It never has been and it never will be.”
What is everyday life like at Cancellara?
“This morning I got up at half past six with my two daughters and my wife Stefanie, then we first had a relaxed breakfast. Now we're both sitting here to talk. I have a meeting right after that. At lunchtime I want to be back home to have lunch with my family. And then it's on the bike. When I get off the trainer, I've earned an espresso and a big piece of cake. The day is rounded off perfectly for me when all four of us have dinner together. Because of my career, I had to wait a long time for this feeling of belonging, for this togetherness. Now I enjoy every second.”
You have been working with the Gore company for the past year. As a former professional, how can you help a sporting goods company?
“Just as a racing cyclist can get the last hundredth out of himself, even a successful brand can still improve one or the other little thing. I'll just add a little bit of my experience. Now I have brought out my first collection. All the epic moments that I have experienced over the years have flowed into the design. These can all be found in a heptagon, in the form of a cobblestone stone. And I had to fly over them in the legendary one-day classic Paris – Roubaix.”
But why seven cobblestones?
"Because I was able to win seven times at a monument of cycling."
Did you really work on the design?
“Just ask the designers there. They'll probably leave the room when they see me calling again (laughs). I really had my fingers in everything."
Do you have an example please?
“I just jot down everything that comes to my mind. If I do a lap on the bike and notice that the new cycling shorts could do with a millimeter less circumference at the waistband, then I immediately take a picture and send it to the colleagues in Feldkirchen. Because I have a little bit of experience with cycling.”
You've clocked up hundreds of thousands of kilometers in your career.
“I really got around quite a bit, saw and experienced many countries and cultures. I am now trying to integrate this cosmopolitan perspective into style and function.”
What does that mean in concrete terms?
"During our professional days we often slandered our jerseys and said: a rag is a rag. With Gore it's the opposite: the quality is outstanding. Now it's all about nuances. Isn't the seam on the shoulder of the jersey maybe two millimeters too low? Does the waistband of the pants still fit after a few thousand kilometers? Did we choose the right fabric for the right part of the collection? These questions need to be answered. Our claim is clear: we want to produce the best cycling clothing in the world.”
Which mountain do you dislike at all in the Tour de France?
"When I wasn't fit, I basically hated every mountain (grins). Really everyone. Ride up a mountain like the Col du Tourmalet in the Pyrenees or the Galibier in the Alps in a group of world-class riders weighing just 65 pounds. I can tell you: They are not only incredibly steep, but also incredibly long. That only hurts. You kick and kick and have the feeling that you will never get there.”
Bjarne Riis once said that you are one of the very few riders in the world who has an incredibly smooth step.
“Ever since my father gave me a Chesini bike when I was twelve, I just got a feel for pedaling. In addition, I have always been an absolute switching freak. I always knew when to shift up or down a few seconds before my competitors. That saved me an enormous amount of energy on the long stages. I then used the power that I saved for the attacks.”
Many amateur cyclists pay meticulous attention to their diet. You, however...
"...usually weighed 81, 82 kilos. With this weight I was simply able to generate the most pressure on the pedal. Starving myself was never an option for me.”
In order to have a chance of winning the Tour de France, Aldo Sassi, the sporting director of her then Mapei cycling team, asked her to lose five kilos.
"If my goal had been to win the Tour de France, I would have had to suffer even more than I already did. But this had nothing to do with quality of life. For me this constant torment, this constant renunciation, this constant abstinence was at some point too much. It's not for nothing that I got my nickname Spartacus from Roberto Petito."
What do you mean?
"Rather go into battle one day and win than fight a battle for three weeks."
Just like with their numerous victories like Paris – Roubaix. The race is also called the hell of the north because it goes for miles over rough cobblestones.
“Impervious is nicely described. This really is hell! Especially in 2013. I had already won the famous one-day classic twice: in 2006 and 2010. However, I felt like a hare in that race. Everyone in the lead group was chasing me. I drove for my life that day. After that, however, I was so exhausted that I could no longer stand on my own after crossing the finish line. What's more, the organizers even had to support me on the way to the award ceremony. Any energy that was in my body was out. Rien ne va plus – nothing works anymore.”
And today? Do your children also want to cycle with you?
"Clear! I often go cycling with my younger daughter. But it's all very relaxed and playful. The most important thing is that she enjoys it.”
How many kilos are you today?
"90, 91, maybe 92. But it's also possible that it's already 93. In any case, my body weight is not yet properly defined. I have enough time for that now (grins)."
What other goals do you have?
“I never want to have to change my closet. The things that suit me today should still suit me five or ten years from now. That's ambitious, isn't it?"
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