According to a spokesman from the Trek Factory Racing team, Cancellara came to this year's Tour de France to be competitive. He came close to a stage victory and his 29th yellow jersey with a late attack in stage 1, finished fifth in stage 5 in Arenberg, defended his fifth place in the general classification until an untimely puncture in the final of stage 7 and sprinted to second place in stage 9 to Mulhouse.

Commenting on his decision to quit the Tour de France Cancellara told Roadcycling.com "It was not only about the cobblestones stage for me. The course for this year’s Tour is very attractive for a rider of my profile, I liked it. There were many opportunities and with a little more luck, I could have gone home with a result in the pocket. It’s been good to be back in the Tour de France. We lost Andy (Schleck) and Danny (Van Poppel) early on, but the team is strong and will keep looking for opportunities."

"We brought Fabian to the Tour to be a factor where his skills allowed it and he didn’t disappoint. Cancellara is a rider that always comes to a race to give everything. You need only look at how he was working for Fränk (Schleck) yesterday at twenty km from the finish in a mountain stage. Now he gets a short break and then we will build up his condition again to be at his best in Ponferrada," Trek Factory Team general manager Luca Guercilena explained.