“It was my decision not to ride the Grand Tours" - Marc Hirschi honest about highs and lows of UAE Team Emirates career

Marc Hirschi has already started 2025 off in winning style, emerging victorious at Clàssica Comunitat Valenciana last weekend. Following his winter transfer from UAE Team Emirates to the Tudor Pro Cycling Team, the Swiss star now looks poised to be one of the stars of the coming campaign. 

Over the course of his four seasons at UAE, Hirschi consistently proved himself as one of the leading one-day riders. Given he was riding for the all-star UAE Team Emirates though, the Swiss often found himself relegated to domestique duty in the Monuments. “It was good because there was not that much focus and attention on me,” he recalls in conversation with Rouleur. “It would have been harder if I was in another team that took me as a single leader who wasn’t performing. In UAE it was more quiet, but for sure it was hard."

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Especially towards the end of 2024 though, Hirschi winning rate was unmatched even by Tadej Pogacar as the Swiss took five consecutive one-day victories on the spin. “Tadej was winning a lot, but I also felt super good and super happy on the bike," he smiles when this topic is brought up. "It’s so much more fun if you’re winning.”

Hirschi's arrival at Tudor, along with fellow new-signing Julian Alaphilippe is also expected to give the Swiss team more Grand Tour opportunities. During his time at UAE, Hirschi found his three-week chances hard to come by, riding just two in his four seasons (Tour de France 2021 & 2022 ed.). He insists though, that was mostly down to his own decision making. “It was my decision not to ride the Grand Tours. I wanted to get the feeling of winning again, so I chose smaller races," he explains. "When I look back, I impressed myself. I went to an altitude camp in Andorra during the Tour de France for San Sebastián and then invested another two weeks at altitude after. I was really living for cycling and afterwards, when I saw what I got from it, it was definitely worth it.”

“I look back on UAE as four nice years, I definitely don’t regret going there, but it was the right moment to move on, to go to another team where I can be the leader in the biggest races, and not have to fight internally for any leadership," continues Hirschi. "I changed for performance reasons.”

And heading into 2025, Hirschi is determined to prove himself as one of the world's leading riders. “Hopefully I’m coming into my best years and I want to see how far I can go," concludes the 26-year-old Swiss star. "I hope I can improve, I really hope I can challenge the best guys and be there among the best one-day racers.”

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