Today at Casa Fondue, it is a Day of Great Thanksgiving and Celebration for it is the birthday of the Red Hammer, the Swiss Time Machine, Spartacus himself, Fabian Cancellara. Disappointed that he didn’t win Milan-San Remo yesterday but coming in second on a storming ride ain’t half bad. I had tons of ideas of how to construct this little birthday billet-doux and then I thought, let’s just watch him … so here are some of my favourite video clips of the mighty Cancellara.

Let us begin …

When I’m on the bike I’m a gladiator. I want to kill my opponents, physically and mentally. When you see that you can kill them, you have to do so.

We’ll drink a beer afterwards, but the race is a battle against all. When I attacked in Flanders, or in Paris-Roubaix with 50 kilometres to go, I wanted to show them that they were riding for second place.

(Quote from Cyclesport magazine)

Strade Bianche 2012: He makes his trademark move, no one can stay on his wheel, he rides away … race over.

Fabian shows that he’s a bit of a linguist … not just Swiss-German and English, but French, Italian, Flemish… and of course Fabianese. (Don’t worry – the interview is in English, even if the intro isn’t … )

The man flies down a descent, absolutely fearless, on this chase back to the peloton in the Tour de France a few years ago. Watch for how he ducks to avoid an overhang and then nonchalantly takes a little snack out of his back pocket – at speed – and eats it, still on the descent, just before he reconnects with the peloton.

When I’m on, I’m really Swiss. Everything in its place.

(Quote from Cyclesport magazine)

This is a great film from Specialized (who make great films all the time). Fabian talks about glory, about the Classics, about riding through the Arenberg “alone. Alone.”

And finally, what I reckon must be the perfect job – holding the haunches of Cancellara as he warms up for an ITT.

Happy birthday, Fabu. The fireworks extravaganza starts at 9pm …