Fabian Cancellara will make his return to competition at the Tour of Spain. Cancellara sustained two transverse process fractures in two vertebrae bones of the lower back while wearing the yellow jersey on stage three of the Tour de France.

“The initial plan was to return to racing at the Eneco Tour next week,” says Cancellara. “But it’s too early. I'm still experiencing some pain when I’m doing high intensity, even though I have been training since more than a week with training rides of up to four hours. I’d love to race already, but my body is just not ready yet.”

Cancellara had almost the exact fracture earlier in the season during the E3 Harelbeke. Two months later he returned at the Tour de Fjords race in Norway. The start of the Vuelta will mark six and a half weeks since his crash at the Tour de France, a significant difference in time with a much quicker reappearance to the racing scene.

“I’ll be at the start of the Vuelta for the seventh time now. It’s a race that I like: lots of kilometers, hard racing, good roads and fans that appreciate our sport. Above all I want to get back into the habit of racing and help our leaders, starting with the team time trial in Marbella. I want to be as good as I can at the Worlds. I’ll suffer to get through the first week, but I need competition."