Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/347048
21 Sport maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 16 JULY 2014 TOUR DE FRANCE Fabian Cancellara announced his withdrawal from the Tour de France on the race's first rest day on Tuesday, becoming the latest big name to exit, albeit the Swiss did so voluntarily Cancellara out of the Tour THE Leopard Trek rider was 34th in General Classification but called it quits on the race's first rest day after helping team leader Frank Schleck in the first proper mountain stage. "I will travel home now and take a little break. The season has been long for me, starting back in Dubai. I have done 59 days of competition this season so far and I have another big goal at the end of this season: the World Championships. It's not a secret that I'd like to be in my best shape there, so it's important that I take some rest," said Cancellara in explaining his decision. Cancellara, a cobblestone special- ist, was one of the favourites to win stage five in Arenberg but had to settle for fifth. "It was not only about the cobble- stones stage for me. The course for this year's Tour is very attractive for a rider of my profile, I liked it. There were many opportunities and with a little more luck, I could have gone home with a result in the pocket. It's been good to be back in the Tour. We lost Andy (Schleck) and Danny (Van Poppel) early on, but the team is strong and will keep on looking for opportunities." General Manager Luca Guercilena said: "We brought Fabian to the Tour to be a factor where his skills allowed it and he didn't disappoint. He's a rider that always comes to a race to give everything - if you just look at how he was working for Fränk (Schleck) yesterday at 20 km from the finish in a mountain stage. Now he gets a short break and then we will build up his condition again to be at his best in Ponferrada. The Tour has already been hit be a number of high profile withdrawals since the start of the race including pre-race favourites Chris Froome and Alberto Contador. Cancellara latest big name to abandon race Nibali has tragic Pantani in mind as he eyes Tour title Vincenzo Nibali already has a decent set of Tour de France leader's yellow jerseys, but he has one put one aside for Marco Pantani's mother SHOULD he prevail on the French roads, Nibali would become the first Italian rider to win the race since the late Pantani, the 1998 winner who died of a cocaine over- dose 10 years ago. "In spite of what happened to him, I would be very proud to suc- ceed Pantani," Nibali told reporters in a hotel car park on the first rest day of the Tour, which he leads with a 2:23 advantage over Australian Richie Porte. Spain's Alejandro Valverde is third, 2:47 off the pace, after com- patriot Alberto Contador, twice a Tour winner, crashed out of the race on Monday. "Pantani's mother had offered me one of his yellow jerseys so if I win this Tour I will bring one of my yel- low jerseys to her," said Nibali. The Italian, who is a great con- noisseur of his sport's history ("I can talk to you about Gino Bartali and Fausto Coppi, but also about Bernard Hinault and Louison Bo- bet," he says), knows that the road to Paris is treacherous. Although the Astana rider be- lieves the hardest stage was Mon- day's trek to La Planche des Belles Filles, which he won to reclaim the yellow jersey, several traps lie ahead. "The Tour seems easy now but it's when everything looks easy that it becomes the most difficult," he said. "There are several riders who lie in wait," Nibali said, citing Valverde and Porte. Frenchmen Romain Bardet and Thibaut Pinot are fourth and sixth respectively with a credible chance of a podium finish and possibly better, according to Nibali. "We saw it with (Michal) Kwiatkowski yesterday, he went from afar and quickly opened a four-minute gap," said Nibali. "We will not make the mistake of underestimating anyone. I made that mistake once, it was in the Vuelta last year and (Chris) Horner won." His quest to become the sixth man to win all three grand tours continues on Wednesday with the 11th stage, a 187.5-km ride to Oy- onnax featuring four short catego- rised climbs in the last 50 kilome- tres. Only Frenchmen Bernard Hina- ult and Jacques Anquetil, Contador, Belgian Eddy Merckx and fellow Italian Felice Gimondi have won the Tour, the Vuelta and the Giro. Vincenzo Nibali of Italy and the Astana Pro Team bites his thumb in honour of his recently born daughter