During the Tour of Flanders press conference, Fabian Cancellara explained he is in the best shape of his life. The Trek Segafredo rider, who will chase a record fourth win in the Tour of Flanders, hopes to win at his last participation Spartacus will end his career at the end of this season.

"I know it’s the last everything, even the last press conference. But these thoughts come after. I’ve been looking into the race. I’m fully concentrated. I have beautiful memories but I want to perform and there’s no space for that if you want to perform", he explained according to Cyclingnews.

"It would mean a lot, it would be history, but on the end I look on it as a bike race, one of the most beautiful bike races of the year. For me, the first thing is to race. If it [the record] comes, it comes. What I can say now is arriving here at 100 percent is what I wanted to achieve. I will do everything in my hands – in my legs – to push and get the result."

He has proved his good form and according to the bookmakers, he will be the favourite number one. . "On the end, I know I did my homework and that’s what it’s all about. I look at the other riders and maybe I see more details in the peloton, so I can see things that no press can see. But I’m calm."

Etixx Quick Step will have a strong team at the start of Sunday's race. Tom Boonen, who has also won thrice, will be marked by Cancellara. "He’s there definitely. Even right now in the team, they’re under big pressure but they have a lot of good riders, and they can do certain moves that will hurt. The whole team is strong. For sure, Tom is Tom. I know Tom for many years. He will be there. This is his race, we know how he can race. He will be one of the riders to watch even if he hasn’t shown to the outside he’s strong. We’re riding with him and I see he’s good."

"I didn’t look at what the others have said. They’re trying to anticipate but the question is always who will anticipate. You can pick people from the other teams who might do this, but we have two other good riders and two fast riders, so we can play tactics too. I always look back to Paris-Roubaix with Stuart O’Grady [his CSC teammate who won in 2007 – ed.] I want to win, but during a race a lot of things can happen. We have a tactic and we’ll stick to it. But when the second line from other teams move, we will do the same."