Cancellara set to retire in 2016

Former world and Olympic time-trial champion Fabian Cancellara has indicated he'll retire from cycling in 2016 and won't compete at the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

"Cycling is not my life, but only a part of my life," the 34-year-old Swiss said at a cycling awards ceremony in Zurich.

"The Rio Games are not on my programme," added Cancellara, who won the Olympic time-trial title in Beijing in 2008.

Nicknamed Spartacus, Cancellara has been world time-trial champion four times and has won two of the cobbled spring classics, the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix, on three separate occasions each.

Also eight times a stage winner on the Tour de France, he has worn the race leader's yellow jersey 29 times, most recently this year before a fall left him with two broken bones in his back and forced him to abandon.

Cancellara turned professional in 2001 and joined the American team Trek in 2014 on a three-year deal.