Cancellara broke the news at the Swiss Cycling Awards, stating simply that "Next year is my last year", adding that "cycling is not my life, but only a part of my life." One wonders whether his injuries this year - fracturing vertebrae twice, in the E3 Harelbeke and again while wearing the yellow jersey in the Tour de France - made his mind up as much as his age or ability.
One of the best time trialists of his era, Spartacus put his name down for serious consideration as one of the best of all time by winning the 2008 Olympic gold medal in the discipline. More impressively, he did it while wearing the rainbow jersey for winning the previous year's World Championship, a title he would win a record-breaking four times from 2006 to 2010.
Cycling Weekly
He could have won the Olympic road race too, perhaps twice. Silver in Beijing was followed by a strong race in the 2012 games until he slid off on a fast left when in the lead group.
But his achievements haven't been limited simply to gold medals. As strong in the Classics as in time trials, he won Milan-San Remo in 2008, and the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix three times each, with a further eight podiums in those three events.Only Tom Boonen (who may also be winding his career up in the near future) can claim such impressive Classic results.
Trek are already looking at how to fill the gap he'll leave, with rumours linking an unsettled Vincenzo Nibali to the team for 2017, but that's a discussion for another time.
Contador may not have officially confirmed that he'll be retiring after 2016, but it's practically an open secret at this point, one which he's hinted at if not outright stated, by saying that only a disappointing showing in the Olympics might make him prolong his career.
He has, however, gone to the trouble of making his planned calendar public knowledge, skipping the Giro to focus on the Tour, Vuelta and the Olympics in between. Risking his 100% record from his previous three Vueltas is the interesting choice, and suggests strongly that the race will be something of a farewell tour for the Madrid rider.
While Cancellara is a master of time trials and one day races, Contador is firmly a stage race specialist. One of only six men to win all three Grand Tours, and - along with Bernard Hinault - one of two to win all three twice, he is immediately placed in the pantheon of cycling greats.
albertocontador.org
Despite these achievements, however, there will remain a large asterisk over Contador's career. He would have won each Grand Tour three times, were it not for his wins in the 2010 Tour and 2011 Giro being struck from the record after he was found to have clenbuterol in his system during the 2010 Tour.
The drug allegations have been even harder to shake given that his team history includes stints at Astana and the infamous US Postal Service/Discovery Channel outfit. Clean blood samples and being Lance Armstrong's team mate aren't generally found in the same sentence any more.
Ugliness in the past notwithstanding, Contador's remaining clean results are still comfortably the best in the peloton, with those struck off relegated to a mere 'what could have been' footnote. Few other riders, if any can be immediately classed as a contender for victory simply by being on the entry list, without checking conditions, profiles or any other factors.
Contador in particular remains the only remaining solid link to the Armstrong era, having beaten the Texan in a straight fight in 2009 while both were in the same Astana team. Time may very well come to see the period from 2009 to present as the Contador era.
It's less easy to find Cancellara's peak, not least because he's perhaps transcended it, not just bridging a gap between the TT dominance of Michael Rogers and Tony Martin, but defining and dominating it. Indeed, Rogers' success declined as soon as Cancellara's began, pointing to the overall time trial game being stepped up by the Swiss rider. Perhaps that will be his ultimate legacy.
Between the two of them, Cancellara and Contador have arguably mastered every discipline in professional road cycling except bunch sprints. Much will be written about them in the next 12 months, probably some of it again here. Every ounce of respect they get in the peloton or on a page will have been hard earned and richly deserved. Fingers crossed both of them have a successful, injury-free season as a fitting send-off to two outstanding careers.
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