--- title: "Fabian Cancellara: Chasing Cancellara to Tudor Pro Cycling" description: Double Olympic champion, events founder, then owner of Tudor Pro Cycling. How Cancellara chose the owner's chair and left daily running to his CEO. url: https://linusmurphy.com/peloton-to-boardroom/fabian-cancellara/ language: en-GB type: article author: Linus Murphy author_url: https://linusmurphy.com/about/ published: 2024-06-13 modified: 2026-11-06 --- [Peloton to boardroom](https://linusmurphy.com/peloton-to-boardroom/) # Fabian Cancellara: from the time trial to owning a professional team By [Linus Murphy](https://linusmurphy.com/about/) • 11 min read Switzerland · Chasing Cancellara; Tudor Pro Cycling · Cycling events and team ownership ![Fabian Cancellara speaking at a TriStar event](https://linusmurphy.com/images/peloton/fabian-cancellara.webp) ## Achievements - [Olympic time-trial gold, 2008 and 2016](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fabian_Cancellara) - [Paris–Roubaix, 2006, 2010 and 2013](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fabian_Cancellara) - [Tour of Flanders, 2010, 2013 and 2014](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fabian_Cancellara) - [Milan–San Remo, 2008](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fabian_Cancellara) Fabian Cancellara turned a racing career built on the time trial into ownership of a professional team. After retiring in 2016 he co-owned an amateur event series, then took over a struggling Swiss development team and relaunched it as Tudor Pro Cycling. He was clear from the start that he was the owner, not the manager. Many former champions who go into team ownership try to run everything, because running everything is what being the leader felt like. Cancellara named his chair in public, hired the operator, and kept to a staged plan. ## What did Fabian Cancellara win as a rider? Cancellara won at the highest level in both the time trial and the cobbled classics: Olympic time-trial champion in 2008 and 2016, four times world time-trial champion, and three times winner of both the Tour of Flanders and Paris–Roubaix. [Cycling Weekly](https://www.cyclingweekly.com/news/racing/olympics/emotional-fabian-cancellara-savours-emphatic-swansong-historic-career-273401) listed that record on the day of his second Olympic gold. [Cyclist](https://www.cyclist.co.uk/news/fabian-cancellara-on-life-in-retirement-i-m-busier-now-than-when-i-raced) adds a Milan–San Remo win to that list. His professional career lasted 16 years, according to [Cyclingnews](https://www.cyclingnews.com/news/olympic-games-cancellara-caps-off-16-year-career-with-gold/), and its last great result was the Rio time trial on 10 August 2016, which he won by 47 seconds from Tom Dumoulin, with Chris Froome third. The cobbles gave him his great rival. “When I rode there was me and Tom Boonen,” he told Cyclist in 2019. The two men left racing in opposite directions: [Boonen went into the car trade](https://linusmurphy.com/peloton-to-boardroom/tom-boonen/), while Cancellara stayed in what he calls the two-wheeled world. ## What did he say when he retired? He left at the top and said so. After Rio he told Cycling Weekly: “To leave the sport at the end of this season with the gold medal is just a perfect way to end my career.” He also spoke about the decision itself. “This was the last time for me to try to win an Olympic medal,” he said. “It means so much to me.” And on choosing the moment: “It’s everyone’s own choice when they want to retire.” That last line matters more than it seems. Leaders often leave a role late because nobody else can make the decision for them. Cancellara announced his retirement year in advance, set his targets inside it, and won the biggest of them. Planning an exit as carefully as an entry is a discipline most boards rarely see from a chief executive. ## How did he start in business after racing? With an event series he co-owned, not with a team. Chasing Cancellara first ran in 2017, and a [Human Sports Management press release](https://humansports.ch/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/20181127_MM_Chasing-Cancellara-und-Dillier-Classic_ENG.pdf) from November 2018 states that the agency and Cancellara each held 50 per cent of the rights. The format is simple. Amateur riders race against him, or ride with him, on routes in Switzerland and elsewhere. The same release describes formats such as Mountain Ride, Chased by Cancellara and Team Challenge, and a 2019 calendar that included an Ultrafondo from Zurich to Zermatt, a race in Villars for the third time, and events in Italy, Germany and Denmark. Underneath the marketing, a sportive is an operations business. It needs road closures, timing, insurance, feed stations and a date that does not move because of rain. The 50–50 structure tells me Cancellara did not try to carry that trade alone. He shared the rights with a sports-management agency instead of owning a business he did not yet know how to run. ## What did he learn from owning a company? That being in charge is a different job from being the leader on the road. In November 2019 he told Cyclist: “I’m also adjusting to owning something. I was always part of a team as a pro and now I own my company and I’m in charge.” In the same interview he said he was busier than when he raced, worked with partners such as Gore and Suplest, and was helping the young Swiss rider Marc Hirschi. He was frank about office life: “I could never work in an office 9-5 however, that’s not in my DNA.” Then, a sentence later: “I have learnt that office work is necessary, however, for what I do now.” He was equally clear about where he would not go. “I’m not one who will go into work away from cycling,” he said. “I couldn’t be one of these guys who go to work in a bank, real estate, architecture, stuff like that.” He chose to stay in the two-wheeled world, which he defined as kit, shoes, bikes and sportives. That is a legitimate choice, and a different one from riders who leave the sport entirely. Staying close means your network and reputation keep working for you. It also means you can never quite stop being the rider, which is why the ownership question became so important later. I like the pair of sentences about the office. It is the most honest description I have read of what happens when a star performer becomes an owner. The work you were famous for shrinks. The work nobody photographs grows. The leaders who do well accept the second part without pretending it is the first. He also spoke about young riders and pressure, and his answer was about people, not talent: “The key is that if they are surrounded by good people, then it’ll be fine and they will continue to improve.” Three years later he applied that to himself. ## How did he come to own Tudor Pro Cycling? He took over an existing development team that was in trouble, then brought in a title sponsor. [Cyclingnews](https://www.cyclingnews.com/features/i-dont-do-unserious-stuff-cancellara-on-tudor-pro-cyclings-2023-ambitions/) reported that the Swiss Racing Academy began in 2019, with Cancellara at first in the informal role of mentor. In a 2023 interview for [Barclays Private Bank](https://privatebank.barclays.com/insights/inspired-magazine-07-2023/wheels-of-fortune-the-rise-of-fabian-cancellara/), he said he had wanted to support the team “because it was crumbling”. His words: “No, if this project falls apart, 16 boys cannot follow their dreams.” In the same interview he mentioned Kids on Wheels, a programme he created with the Laureus Sport for Good Foundation Switzerland. On 26 April 2022, a few hours before the Tour de Romandie, he announced the change. [Cyclingnews reported](https://www.cyclingnews.com/news/fabian-cancellara-launches-tudor-pro-cycling-team-for-2023/) that he would be team owner and take control of the Swiss Racing Academy, which already raced at Continental level. The watchmaker Tudor became title sponsor, BMC remained the bike supplier, and the team would race in a new black jersey from the under-23 Paris–Roubaix on 15 May. The plan was staged. The team would race as a Continental team for the rest of 2022, apply for ProTeam status for 2023, and aim to qualify for the sport’s biggest races by the 2024 season. [Cycling Weekly](https://www.cyclingweekly.com/news/fabian-cancellara-announces-launch-of-new-swiss-proteam-for-2023) noted that, if it succeeded, it would be Switzerland’s first professional team since IAM Cycling folded in 2016. ## What role did he give himself? Owner, and he said so on the day of the launch. “I’m not the trainer, I’m not the sports director, definitely. So my role will be as the owner,” he told Cyclingnews in April 2022. He tied that choice to experience: “I think my experience over the last few years, with my company and also with this mentoring with Swiss Racing Academy show me that this is a role that I fit into.” That is the events business paying a second dividend. Running Chasing Cancellara taught him what he was suited to. By October 2022 the structure was visible. Cancellara said day-to-day operations were in the hands of Raphael Meyer and Thibault Hofer. The team had also hired Ricardo Scheidecker, previously technical and development director at QuickStep. Cancellara was blunt about the limits of his role: “I’m not Lefevere, Bjarne Riis or Jonathan Vaughters. I’m an addition, but I have good people around me.” He also set out how he wanted the organisation to behave. “We are Swiss, and we want to have the Swiss mentality, which doesn’t mean that we only have money,” he said. “No, we don’t have money to throw around. But when the Swiss do organisation, I think they do it right.” He was just as specific about people. “We always remember that we’re dealing with athletes and with humans. I’ve said already I don’t want ten o’clock conference calls.” An owner who sets norms like that, in public, is doing culture work that no sports director can do for him. In the Barclays interview he described himself as “kind of an adviser, supporter and helper”. That is close to what a good non-executive chair does. He sets the tone and protects the long-term plan, and he does not take the operator’s decisions. ## Did the plan work? On its own stated milestones, yes. Tudor raced as a ProTeam in 2023, took 11 wins that year including Milano–Torino and the Giro di Sicilia, and received a wildcard for the 2024 Giro d’Italia, its first Grand Tour, according to [Cyclingnews](https://www.cyclingnews.com/news/giro-ditalia-wildcards-tudor-polti-kometa-and-bardiani-join-israel-premier-tech/). CEO Raphael Meyer, announcing the invitation on [the team’s own site](https://www.tudorprocycling.com/post/tudor-pro-cycling-to-giro-d-italia), called it “a great recognition of the work that has been done by the entire team since we entered the pro ranks last year.” He framed it as “a logical evolution” rather than a leap, built on signing experienced riders and staff. The operational load is real. Before the start in Turin, [watson](https://www.watson.ch/sport/velo/294025383-das-tudor-pro-cycling-team-ist-beim-giro-d-italia-zum-ersten-mal-dabei) reported that 20 staff were supporting eight riders. Meyer joked, in my translation from German, that some people say the team is a logistics company that also races bikes. That is a fair description of most professional sports organisations, and of many companies. The Giro also mattered to the sponsor. watson noted that Tudor used the race to present a new lightweight watch aimed at athletes, and described the Giro as a next step in visibility for the team’s sponsors. A title sponsor is a customer, and an owner’s job includes making sure that customer gets what it paid for. The result was modest and useful. [Tudor reported](https://www.tudorprocycling.com/post/first-giro-d-italia-completed-with-a-top-10-in-the-general-classification) a top-10 overall finish through Michael Storer and ten top-10 stage finishes, with no stage win. Cancellara’s verdict: “The experience we gathered on the way is our biggest victory.” I could not find published revenue, budget or headcount figures for the team or for Chasing Cancellara as of mid-2024, so I will not quote any. The milestones above are the record I can stand behind. ## What transfers from racing to running an organisation, and what does not? The time trial transfers; the captain’s habit does not. A time triallist lives by a plan, a pace and a clock, while a classics leader is used to a team that rides for him. Cancellara kept the first and dropped the second. On patience, he said in 2022: “Success will not come with money. Cycling has certain rules, which are patience and time.” At the launch he told Cycling Weekly that “companies don’t become millionaires in one day”. On structure: “Our first ambition is to have a good structure.” That is the work in [the guide chapter on moving from vision to execution](https://linusmurphy.com/guide/vision-to-execution/), spoken by a team owner. Four lessons I would take into a boardroom: 1. **Name your chair in public.** “My role will be as the owner” removes confusion for staff, sponsors and riders on day one. Most founder-led organisations never say it. 2. **Hire the operator before you need one.** By the autumn of the launch year, Meyer and Hofer were running the day-to-day. A famous owner who also runs operations creates a team that waits for him. 3. **Rescue, then scale.** He built on an existing academy with riders, a licence and a calendar. That is slower than a magazine launch and far more likely to survive year three. 4. **Set staged milestones and publish them.** Continental in 2022, ProTeam in 2023, big races by 2024. A public plan is a discipline on the owner as much as on the staff. He offered Barclays a metaphor that suits a team sponsored by a watchmaker. “A watch only works when everything functions and it’s the same in sport,” he said, listing training, motivation, mental health, equipment and preparation. Replace those with strategy, people, capital and operations, and you have a fair description of a company. One component running fast does not make the watch keep time. What does not transfer is the spotlight. “It’s lonely at the top because nobody else can feel what it’s like to be there,” he told Barclays about winning. An owner who still needs that feeling will compete with his own riders for it. The [series part on leadership pitfalls](https://linusmurphy.com/guide/why-successful-leaders-stall/leadership-pitfalls/) covers that trap. [Alberto Contador](https://linusmurphy.com/peloton-to-boardroom/alberto-contador/) put time into a development team and then a bike brand with a fellow Grand Tour rider. [Chris Boardman](https://linusmurphy.com/peloton-to-boardroom/chris-boardman/), another rider whose career was an argument with the clock, built a bike company and then moved into public policy. If you are moving from elite sport into an ownership role, that is the work I do in [my elite sport to boardroom coaching](https://linusmurphy.com/services/from-elite-sport-to-the-boardroom/). The other riders in [From the peloton to the boardroom](https://linusmurphy.com/peloton-to-boardroom/) show the same test from different angles. ### Career-to-business timeline | Year | Racing | Business | | --- | --- | --- | | 2008 | Olympic time-trial gold, Beijing | — | | 2016 | Olympic time-trial gold, Rio, 10 August; retires at season’s end | — | | 2017 | Retired | Chasing Cancellara event series runs for the first time | | 2018 | Retired | Press release confirms 50–50 rights split with Human Sports Management | | 2019 | Retired | Swiss Racing Academy starts; Cancellara’s first role there is as mentor | | April 2022 | Team relaunched before the Tour de Romandie | Takes ownership; Tudor becomes title sponsor | | 2023 | Tudor races as a ProTeam; 11 wins | Owner; Raphael Meyer runs the team as CEO | | May 2024 | First Grand Tour, the Giro d’Italia; top 10 overall | Owner | What leaders can take from this - Cancellara started with events he co-owned with an agency, then stepped up to a team when it needed rescuing. - He defined his role in public as the owner, not the trainer or sports director. - Day-to-day running sits with a CEO, Raphael Meyer, and an operations team. - He set a staged plan in 2022 and the team met it, reaching its first Grand Tour in 2024. - Patience and structure, his own words, matter more than money in the early years. ## Questions I am asked **What does Fabian Cancellara do now?** He owns Tudor Pro Cycling, a Swiss professional team, and runs the Chasing Cancellara event series. He took on both after retiring from racing in 2016. **What is Chasing Cancellara?** It is a series of cycling events for amateurs where riders race against or alongside Cancellara. It first ran in 2017, and a 2018 press release said he and Human Sports Management each held 50 per cent of the rights. **Did Cancellara found Tudor Pro Cycling from scratch?** No. He took ownership of an existing Continental team, the Swiss Racing Academy, which had started in 2019, and relaunched it as Tudor Pro Cycling in April 2022 with the watchmaker Tudor as title sponsor. **Who runs Tudor Pro Cycling day to day?** Raphael Meyer is the team's CEO. In 2022 Cancellara said day-to-day operations were in the hands of Meyer and Thibault Hofer, and that his own role was as owner. **Has Tudor Pro Cycling ridden a Grand Tour?** Yes. It received a wildcard for the 2024 Giro d'Italia, its first Grand Tour, and finished with a top-10 place overall through Michael Storer. **What can a CEO learn from Cancellara's move into ownership?** Name your role precisely and hire the operator. He said in public that he was not the trainer or the sports director, put a CEO in charge of daily running, and kept to a staged plan. ## Sources 1. [Emotional Fabian Cancellara savours emphatic swansong to historic career](https://www.cyclingweekly.com/news/racing/olympics/emotional-fabian-cancellara-savours-emphatic-swansong-historic-career-273401) — Cycling Weekly, 10 August 2016 2. [Olympic Games: Cancellara caps off 16-year career with gold](https://www.cyclingnews.com/news/olympic-games-cancellara-caps-off-16-year-career-with-gold/) — Cyclingnews, 10 August 2016 3. [Fabian Cancellara and Silvan Dillier join forces (press release)](https://humansports.ch/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/20181127_MM_Chasing-Cancellara-und-Dillier-Classic_ENG.pdf) — Human Sports Management, 27 November 2018 4. [Fabian Cancellara on life in retirement: 'I'm busier now than when I raced'](https://www.cyclist.co.uk/news/fabian-cancellara-on-life-in-retirement-i-m-busier-now-than-when-i-raced) — Cyclist, 1 November 2019 5. [Fabian Cancellara launches Tudor Pro Cycling team for 2023](https://www.cyclingnews.com/news/fabian-cancellara-launches-tudor-pro-cycling-team-for-2023/) — Cyclingnews, 26 April 2022 6. [Fabian Cancellara announces launch of new Swiss ProTeam for 2023](https://www.cyclingweekly.com/news/fabian-cancellara-announces-launch-of-new-swiss-proteam-for-2023) — Cycling Weekly, 26 April 2022 7. ['I don't do unserious stuff' – Cancellara on Tudor Pro Cycling's 2023 ambitions](https://www.cyclingnews.com/features/i-dont-do-unserious-stuff-cancellara-on-tudor-pro-cyclings-2023-ambitions/) — Cyclingnews, 31 October 2022 8. [Wheels of fortune: The rise of Fabian Cancellara](https://privatebank.barclays.com/insights/inspired-magazine-07-2023/wheels-of-fortune-the-rise-of-fabian-cancellara/) — Barclays Private Bank, 3 July 2023 9. [Giro d'Italia wildcards – Tudor, Polti-Kometa and Bardiani join Israel-Premier Tech](https://www.cyclingnews.com/news/giro-ditalia-wildcards-tudor-polti-kometa-and-bardiani-join-israel-premier-tech/) — Cyclingnews, 23 January 2024 10. [Tudor Pro Cycling to Giro d'Italia](https://www.tudorprocycling.com/post/tudor-pro-cycling-to-giro-d-italia) — Tudor Pro Cycling, 23 January 2024 11. [Eigene Köche und Topfahrer – so will Cancellaras Team Tudor beim Giro d'Italia brillieren](https://www.watson.ch/sport/velo/294025383-das-tudor-pro-cycling-team-ist-beim-giro-d-italia-zum-ersten-mal-dabei) — watson / CH Media, 6 May 2024 12. [First Giro d'Italia Completed With A Top-10 In The General Classification](https://www.tudorprocycling.com/post/first-giro-d-italia-completed-with-a-top-10-in-the-general-classification) — Tudor Pro Cycling, 27 May 2024 ![Portrait of Linus Murphy](https://linusmurphy.com/images/portraits/linus-headshot.jpg) **[Linus Murphy](https://linusmurphy.com/about/)** Elite executive coach [Book a 30-minute strategy call](https://calendly.com/linusmurphy-coaching/30min) Other riders: [Eddy Merckx](https://linusmurphy.com/peloton-to-boardroom/eddy-merckx/); [Greg LeMond](https://linusmurphy.com/peloton-to-boardroom/greg-lemond/); [Sean Kelly](https://linusmurphy.com/peloton-to-boardroom/sean-kelly/); [Chris Boardman](https://linusmurphy.com/peloton-to-boardroom/chris-boardman/); [Sir Chris Hoy](https://linusmurphy.com/peloton-to-boardroom/chris-hoy/); [Alberto Contador](https://linusmurphy.com/peloton-to-boardroom/alberto-contador/); [Tom Boonen](https://linusmurphy.com/peloton-to-boardroom/tom-boonen/); [Jonathan Vaughters](https://linusmurphy.com/peloton-to-boardroom/jonathan-vaughters/); [Pat McQuaid](https://linusmurphy.com/peloton-to-boardroom/pat-mcquaid/). ## The jersey is not the strategy If you raced at a serious level and now hold a chair — or you are about to — I will work the identity and the operating system. 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