After a busy winter of preparation, UAE Team Emirates' Swiss National Champion, Marc Hirschi is ready for his season opener this Saturday afternoon at the Figueira Champions Classic.
“I have the feeling that I have done everything I need to,” the 25-year-old assesses of his winter preparation, where he spent two and a half weeks at altitude in a training camp in Tenerife with some of his UAE Team Emirates teammates, ready for the start of his 2024 season in Portugal.
2024 could be a massive season in the career of Hirschi, who begins the final year of his UAE Team Emirates contract at the Figueira Champions Classic before remaining in Portugal for the Volta ao Algarve and his first stage race of the campaign.
If he takes the form he showed during the end of 2023 into the new year, form that saw him win the Tour de Hongrie and Tour of Luxembourg, plus take home top placings at the Italian, end of season classics. "The fact that I was able to win two tours showed that I had taken a step forward," explains Hirschi to SRF. "What was missing was a big victory."