After a one-year absence, Fabian Cancellara will return to the Tour de France this summer and has set his sights on the stage over the Paris-Roubaix cobbles. This week he will prepare himself for the race at his home race, the Tour de Suisse, where he hopes to shine in the time trials despite suffering the effects from a recent crash.

One year ago Fabian Cancellara decided to skip the Tour de France to focus fully on the World Championships but this year he will be back in the world's biggest bike race. With a stage over the Paris-Roubaix cobbles, he is inspired to take another road stage victory in addition to the one he took in Compiegne 7 years ago.

Before he gets to the start in Leeds, he will start his home race, the Tour de Suisse, which kicks off with a short time trial in Bellinzona. Unfortunately, his preparation has been hampered by a recent high-speed crash in training that caused him to miss a few days of training.

"I was on my TT bike, training behind the motorbike," he told his team's website. "We were doing a recon training of the Tour de Suisse time trial in Worb, actually. I was in the aero position and my shifters got tangled up in a handgrip at the back side of the motorbike. I went down going around 55 km/h. It hurt, I can tell you that. I lost a lot of skin and I have a lot of scrapes and bruises, but luckily nothing was broken. A local pharmacy took care of my wounds and I rode my bike home.

"I lost some training days, so I’m not coming to the Tour de Suisse in the shape I was hoping for. The first 24 hours after the crash were okay, but the next day was really painful. I felt bad and in a lot of pain. I couldn’t go on the bike. So I went to Basel, to visit our head doctor, Andreas Goesele, just to be sure everything is alright." 

Despite the crash, Cancellara still has clear goals in Switzerland. He may not be at his best in the opening time trial but hopes to shine in the long TT in stage 7.

"It’s hard. The climb is not easy at all," he said about tomorrow's stage. "The crash makes it a little difficult to predict my performance. But I’ll be at the start line, so I’ll definitely give it everything. The weather could be a factor. I hope it won’t disturb the result too much though.

"The time trial in Worb is really special for me. It’s only 15 km away from my house, so a lot of friends and family will be there to support me. I thought I knew every corner of the parcours, but I have noticed that there are still one or two streets that I had never taken on training.

"It’s like a routine, for me, although every edition is different. The course changes all the time. The race is usually really hard, like is the case this year as well, but I always try to find something in the course that fits my possibilities."

Cancellara is looking forward to his return to the Tour de France.

"It feels good. I think I have missed some ‘Frenchness’ in my program, to be honest," he said. "I’m curious to see how much bigger the Tour has become in two years time. We talked about my participation for some time. It would have been great to have a prologue, but that’s not the case and I’m motivated to try something in the fifth stage, that goes over the cobblestones of Roubaix. I’m also happy to lead the team and to share my experience. It’s sort of a goal for me. Just focusing on the Worlds from here onwards is too soft of a program. If you race without a real goal, you lose some fire. I want to keep that fire.

"We still need to decide if I race the national championships, road and TT. Then I go to the Tour. Later come the Vuelta and the World Championships."

Due to the risk of thunderstorms, Cancellara will be an early starter in tomorrow's time trial. He will roll down the ramp at 15.37 local time.