"It is nothing but misery for the time being": Tudor's spring is a write-off after series of crashes in run-up to Roubaix

Tudor Pro Cycling have been going from one annoyance to another this spring. With new recruit Stefan Küng lining up his ambitions alongside the experienced Matteo Trentin, the Swiss ProTeam aimed to leave a strong mark at the Classics. But now the end of the cobbled campign is closing in, and team manager Bart Leysen is merely waiting for the 2026 Paris-Roubaix to be finally over.

It has all started already at Omloop Nieuwsblad where Stefan Küng's spring ended in an instant with a hard fall causing the tall time trialist to take a forced pause from racing with a broken femur. As major blow as that would've been for any team, Tudor had another strong card to play with Matteo Trentin.

But that's no longer an option as the 36-year-old Italian was a major victim of a crash in group fighting for sixth place at Tour of Flanders, suffering a broken collarbone.

"Yet another setback," Leysen sighted to WielerFlits about the poor luck which encountered Trentin. "It wasn't his fault, but we are the ones bearing the consequences. That's life, isn't it? It almost makes you despondent."

In 2026, Tudor Pro Cycling is one of the two Swiss ProTeams granted an automatic invitation to any WorldTour event. With this privilege, the team of Fabian Cancellara was aiming to put their name as the strongest contender for WorldTour promotion at first possibility - either in 2029, or at the end of this year in case Team Picnic PostNL would not secure a prolongation of their license beyond 2026.

And with three-time Hell of the North champion behind steering wheel, there's no hiding that success at Classics is vital to the team's identity. But is there even anything the team can do without Küng and Trentin among their ranks?

"We currently have more replacements than actual riders for the races still to come," Leysen admits that the complications ahead of Sunday's race is rather peculiar. "Quite unprecedented. For Paris-Roubaix, we have just seven riders, fortunately. But it certainly took some puzzling."

Tudor's main cards for the race will be fifth place from Ronde van Brugge - Luca Mozzato, and the experienced Austrian Marco Haller who finished 12th at Paris-Roubaix last year.

But Leysen points out that not only the team's leaders have been affected by falls the last few weeks: "Arthur Kluckers was also riding quite well, but he also crashed recently and is still struggling a bit with whiplash. Maybe we can still do something with Marco Haller."

Afterwards, it will be a matter of assessing the damage and looking forward to the summer. "Unfortunately, it is not just here that things are not going well. At the Itzulia Basque Country, four of our riders are already out. One due to a crash, the other three due to a stomach virus. For the time being, it is nothing but misery for our team, but of course, something like this cannot go on forever. You have to keep believing in that," Leysen concluded.