Fabian Cancellara is the poster child of this year's Tour de Suisse. After a tough start to the season, the Olympic gold medalist is confident: "Now I'm ready to tackle the individual time trial at the opening of the Tour de Suisse." Late last May: Fabian Cancellara trains in the Alps with his colleagues from the Saxo Bank team. Part of the training involves biking the 15th leg of the Tour de France, over 207 km from Pontarlier to Verbier with the Col des Mosses, exactly the same route as in the actual race. The same applies to the time trial in Annecy.

It's impossible to pass over the Little St. Bernhard Pass. There's too much snow.

But the team can't resist the tour's summit, the Great St. Bernhard Pass, even when it means pushing their bikes across a 50-metre swath of snow on the third-highest pass in Switzerland (at 2,473 metres) just one day before its official opening. "The walls of snow at the curves were sometimes over five metres," said Fabian Cancellara.

"In moments like that, you become one with nature and are simply awestruck," said the Olympic medallist, describing the power of the experience. Ready to suffer. After the tough training in the Alps, Cancellara is ready for whatever the Tour de Suisse has in store for him. In the days before the race, he'll be training intensively for the time trials, also with the team.

"The fact that I recover more and more quickly is a big motivation for me. I'm ready to suffer again", says Cancellara, optimistic about the second half of the season. Though widely considered a favourite for the race across Switzerland, Cancellara is staying realistic: ''It's too early to say who's going to win this tour.'' But Cancellara is ready for the Tour de Suisse's opening time trials from Mauren to Ruggell: ''I'm going to do everything I can to win.''.