Swiss cyclists

Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 39. Chapters: Fabian Cancellara, Hugo Koblet, Alex Zülle, Ferdinand Kübler, Kurt Betschart, Thomas Frischknecht, Christine Schaffner, Tony Rominger, Karin Thürig, Bruno Risi, Pascal Richard, Priska Doppmann, Oscar Egg, Urs Freuler, Steffen Wesemann, Martin Elmiger, Christian Heule, Fritz Pfenninger, Thomas Frei, Franco Marvulli, Beat Zberg, Heiri Suter, Christoph Sauser, Rubens Bertogliati, Mauro Gianetti, Michael Albasini, Rolf Järmann, Grégory Rast, Erich Maechler, Paul Egli, Oscar Camenzind, Nicole Brändli, Markus Zberg, Johann Tschopp, Albert Zweifel, Aurélien Clerc, Leo Amberg, Beat Breu, Laurent Dufaux, Fritz Schär, Oliver Zaugg, Steve Morabito, Niki Aebersold, Carlo Clerici, Rolf Graf, Urs Zimmermann, Michael Schär, Gilbert Glaus, Fabian Jeker, Giovanni Rossi, René Strehler, David Loosli, Alexandre Moos, Steve Zampieri, Florian Vogel, Gottfried Schmutz, Walter Diggelmann, Niki Rüttimann, Alfred Achermann, Michel Frédérick, Serge Demierre, Mathias Frank, Marcel Strauss, Karl Litschi, Patrick Calcagni, Kurt Gimmi, Charles Laeser, Alexander Äschbach, Luzia Zberg, Stefan Mutter, René Pedroli, René Binggeli, Albert Büchi, Ernst Nievergelt, Hubert Schwab, Pietro Tarchini, Daniel Gisiger, Xaver Kurmann, Martin Kohler, Danilo Wyss, Richard Trinkler, Laurent Vial, Florian Stalder, Hans Knecht, Benno Wiss, Robert Dill-Bundi, Jörg Müller, Nino Schurter, Emilie Aubry, Annette Beutler, Beat Okle, Maxime Bally, Loïc Perizzolo, Kilian Moser. Excerpt: Fabian Cancellara (born 18 March 1981) is a Swiss professional road bicycle racer for UCI ProTeam Leopard Trek. A time trial specialist, he is a four-time World Time Trial Champion and is the current Olympic gold medalist. He is also a winner of Tour of Flanders, Paris-Roubaix (twice), Milan - San Remo, Tirreno-Adriatico, Tour de Suisse, Monte Paschi Eroica, and four prologues of the Tour de France. Cancellara was born in Wohlen bei Bern, a municipality near the city of Berne, Switzerland to Italian parents that had emigrated from San Fele. He discovered cycling at the age of 13 after falling in love with an old family bike that he had found in the garage and immediately gave up football to concentrate on cycling. Cancellara's cycling skills began to blossom at an early age, when he impressed as a time trialist and dominated Swiss junior cycling. Yvan Girard, Swiss national junior team coach from 1997 to 2005, was quoted saying that Cancellara was head and shoulders above everyone else in the time trials. He won the junior World Time Trial Championship in both 1998 and 1999 and at the age of 19 he came in second at the 2000 U-23 World Time Trial Championship, after which he turned professional with Mapei-Quick Step, then one of the strongest teams in the world. Cancellara rode as stagiaire for the Mapei-Quick Step team in late 2000 before joining the team for the 2001 season as a member of the "Young Riders Project". Cancellara's first victory as a professional came at the prologue of the Tour of Rhodes, where he also won the overall final general classification. For 2002 the Mapei team split into two formations per UCI regulations, the "Top Team" with 25 riders and the GS-III "Gruppo Giovani" (youth group) to develop young talents, which Cancellara joined with other riders including Filippo Pozzato, Michael Rogers and Bernhard Eisel. Giorgio Squinzi, the head of Mapei firm, later said in an interview with La Gazzetta dello Sport that he took Cancellara and Pozzato