Fabian Cancellara (Trek) won’t have many good memories from 2015. Two serious crashes in the spring and at the Tour de France threw a spanner in the works for the Swiss and practically cost him all his highlights of the season.

"I was jinxed: Whenever I reached a good level, the hammer came," Cancellara told Aargauer Zeitung.

However, what was a disappointing year for Cancellara would have been a great season for a lot of riders in the peloton. The 34-year-old won a stage of the Tour of Oman (2.HC), the final individual time trial of Tirreno-Adriatico, was seventh at Milan-San Remo and wore the yellow jersey at the Tour de France for a day after two third places in the first two stages.

However, he had to give it away one day later after a bad crash and he left the race with two fractured vertebrae. It was exactly the same injury he had suffered in March at E3 Prijs and which had already cost him the spring season with the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix. Nonetheless, Cancellara can still regard himself as a lucky man. “After my crashes, I didn’t really realize how close I was to be sitting in a wheelchair. Just a few centimeters made the difference," he said.

Cancellara fought his way back and started the Vuelta a Espana but he had to abandon on stage 3 due to a viral infection. This prompted him to skip the World Championships in Richmond. "The Vuelta really took everything out of me. I was complely inactive for a week. After that, I had no energy, to build up for the Worlds again," he explained.

2016 will be the last season as a professional. "Physically, I could have continued longer, but mentally it's not possible anymore," the Swiss told Het Nieuwsblad. However, he still has big goals for his final road season. "I want to write one last story. But if I do not succeed, I will not cry," said Cancellara who is likely to be back in the classics, the Tour and probably also the Olympic Games in Rio in 2016.