Much to the dismay of his fans, Swiss riding great Cancellara (Fabian) has reportedly fractured his vertebrae in a serious crash at E3 Harelbeke championship in Belgium. He has been ticked off from Spring Classics given his severe condition.

The 3 time champion of Flanders Tour & Paris-Roubaix met a tragic crash with a pool of fifty cyclists on cobbled Haaghoek region but the braveheart still strived to continue- and had to leave unfortunately after around ten kilometers. He was carried away by a Trek car.

“Everything happened really fast”, stated Cancellara, struggling to come out of the shock of the crash.

“Somebody slammed brakes & I had no way to move forward but right into it. I kind of flew over 2 riders & then ended up over a stack of bikes”, he continued.

“There were cyclists everywhere & I fell real hard, ending up with deep pain everywhere. I tried hard to move on yet had to discontinue given the extreme pain. We rushed to hospital for the scans & it confirmed my pain. There isn’t anything that one can do in this sort of injury- no surgery, no cast- you just have to bite the pain.”

Cancellara’s scans revealed a couple of broken vertebrae which ruled out his chances at Spring Classics. (more…)