diff --git a/pytorch_lightning/trainer/trainer.py b/pytorch_lightning/trainer/trainer.py
index caa7c2ddd8..24236a6eb4 100644
--- a/pytorch_lightning/trainer/trainer.py
+++ b/pytorch_lightning/trainer/trainer.py
@@ -1021,9 +1021,31 @@ class Trainer(
         # set testing if set in environ
         self.testing = os.environ.get('PL_TESTING_MODE', self.testing)
 
-        # -------------------
-        # determine ddp mode
-        # -------------------
+        # choose accelerator
+        self.accelerator_backend = self.select_accelerator()
+
+        # setup accelerator
+        self.accelerator_backend.setup(model)
+
+        # train!
+        results = self.accelerator_backend.train()
+
+        # teardown accelerator
+        self.accelerator_backend.teardown()
+
+        # hook
+        self.call_hook('on_fit_end')
+
+        # hook
+        self.teardown('fit')
+        if self.is_function_implemented('teardown'):
+            model.teardown('fit')
+
+        # return 1 when finished
+        # used for testing or when we need to know that training succeeded
+        return results or 1
+
+    def select_accelerator(self):
         # SLURM ddp
         use_slurm_ddp = self.use_ddp and self.is_slurm_managing_tasks
 
@@ -1038,79 +1060,40 @@ class Trainer(
         # -------------------
         # DDP2 (cluster only)
         if self.use_ddp2:
-            self.accelerator_backend = DDP2Backend(self)
-            self.accelerator_backend.setup(model)
-            results = self.accelerator_backend.train()
-            self.accelerator_backend.teardown()
+            accelerator_backend = DDP2Backend(self)
 
         elif use_slurm_ddp:
-            self.accelerator_backend = DDPBackend(self, mode='slurm_ddp')
-            self.accelerator_backend.setup(model)
-            results = self.accelerator_backend.train()
-            self.accelerator_backend.teardown()
+            accelerator_backend = DDPBackend(self, mode='slurm_ddp')
 
         elif use_torchelastic_ddp:
-            self.accelerator_backend = DDPBackend(self, mode='torchelastic_ddp')
-            self.accelerator_backend.setup(model)
-            results = self.accelerator_backend.train()
-            self.accelerator_backend.teardown()
+            accelerator_backend = DDPBackend(self, mode='torchelastic_ddp')
 
         # regular ddp using .spawn
         elif use_ddp_spawn:
-            self.accelerator_backend = DDPSpawnBackend(self, nprocs=self.num_processes)
-            self.accelerator_backend.setup(model)
-            results = self.accelerator_backend.train()
-            self.accelerator_backend.teardown()
+            accelerator_backend = DDPSpawnBackend(self, nprocs=self.num_processes)
 
         # ddp
         elif self.distributed_backend == 'ddp':
-            self.accelerator_backend = DDPBackend(self, mode='ddp')
-            self.accelerator_backend.setup(model)
-            results = self.accelerator_backend.train()
-            self.accelerator_backend.teardown()
+            accelerator_backend = DDPBackend(self, mode='ddp')
 
         # dp
         elif self.use_dp:
-            self.accelerator_backend = DataParallelBackend(self)
-            self.accelerator_backend.setup(model)
-            results = self.accelerator_backend.train()
-            self.accelerator_backend.teardown()
+            accelerator_backend = DataParallelBackend(self)
 
         elif self.use_horovod:
-            self.accelerator_backend = HorovodBackend(self)
-            self.accelerator_backend.setup(model)
-            results = self.accelerator_backend.train()
-            self.accelerator_backend.teardown()
+            accelerator_backend = HorovodBackend(self)
 
         elif self.use_single_gpu:
-            self.accelerator_backend = GPUBackend(self)
-            self.accelerator_backend.setup(model)
-            results = self.accelerator_backend.train()
-            self.accelerator_backend.teardown()
+            accelerator_backend = GPUBackend(self)
 
         elif self.use_tpu:
-            self.accelerator_backend = TPUBackend(self)
-            self.accelerator_backend.setup(model)
-            results = self.accelerator_backend.train()
-            self.accelerator_backend.teardown()
+            accelerator_backend = TPUBackend(self)
 
         else:
-            self.accelerator_backend = CPUBackend(self)
-            self.accelerator_backend.setup(model)
-            results = self.accelerator_backend.train()
-            self.accelerator_backend.teardown()
+            accelerator_backend = CPUBackend(self)
 
-        # hook
-        self.call_hook('on_fit_end')
+        return accelerator_backend
 
-        # hook
-        self.teardown('fit')
-        if self.is_function_implemented('teardown'):
-            model.teardown('fit')
-
-        # return 1 when finished
-        # used for testing or when we need to know that training succeeded
-        return results or 1
 
     def can_prepare_data(self):
         should_call_dm_prepare_data = True