Former world and Olympic time-trial champion Fabian Cancellara has indicated that he will retire from cycling in 2016 and said he will not 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 quit the race.

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