Marc Hirschi thanks to brave choices now major World Championship challenger to Pogacar and co: "No freedom in this team"

Hirschi - who will join Tudor Pro Cycling for three years after this season - worked toward the World Championship in Switzerland in what was bluntly put as a second-rate program by UAE Team Emirates. The means were nevertheless impressive. In July, while the whole world was watching the Tour, Hirschi won a stage and the GC in the Tour of the Czech Republic. Wins followed that in the Clasica San Sebastián, the Bretagne Classic, the GP Industria & Artigianato, Coppa Sabatini, and the Memorial Pantani. Add the Faun Drôme Classic win in February, and he boosted his number of pro wins from 14 to 22.

14 pro wins, including 12 in his first three seasons with UAE Team Emirates, is not bad. However, the quality of victories was purely of 1.1, 2.1, 1.Pro or 2.Pro status. No WorldTour wins in a program where he only did the Tour de France in 2021 and 2022. No grand tours in 2023 and 2024, and in the only two Tours he did, he crashed hard both times on the opening weekend. Crashes and broken bones often kept him away from the major events.

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His results in 2024 fell somewhat out of whack with this prior history, but not with Hirschi and UAE Team Emirates. "We know Marc is a great champion, but now he is back. Often in cycling, you give a hundred percent, but nothing comes your way. Now Marc has been doing very well for a few months, we are happy with that," UAE team manager Andrej Hauptman said. "It's little things. Marc has always given everything, but then something was always against him. From the spring, he has now become more powerful."

Agrees Hirschi, who makes no secret that he has made the World Championship a big goal. "I've had some setbacks in recent years, but now I'm enjoying it again. Also, in the upcoming races, I hope to show good form because I have been in top form for quite a long time," he says with a sense of understatement.

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It's not just a year without crashes, injuries, and thus more racing fun that will make Hirschi a dreaded name among World Championship favorites like Tadej Pogacar, Remco Evenepoel, and Mathieu van der Poel. In his last year in UAE, Hirschi dared to overhaul his program completely. "I trained a lot and spent a lot of time at altitude. In the process, I rode very specifically, with fewer race days. There were many more in the past. I also trained more on the longer distances and was healthy, making me work well."

The most crucial choice in the last few months was skipping the Vuelta a España. The UAE Team Emirates would have liked to take Hirschi to Spain, but the climber did not see a role as a domestique. "The plan was to do the Vuelta, but I chose not to because preparing well for the World Championship would be challenging. In this team, you have no freedom in a big tour if someone is in a leader's jersey. The risk was that I had to work too hard for others, so I opted for solid training."

Whether he reaps the benefits of that will be seen on Sunday....

Bram van der Ploeg (Twitter: @BvdPloegg | email: [email protected])