There was a moment during last autumn's very rare cycling campaign, which Marc Hirschi could be the fittest cyclist on the planet.. It wasn't for many days, because in that autumn cycling session, on that catwalk, the passage of Marc Hirschi caused a sensation.
Revelation in the Tour de FranceThe young Swiss rider, the bogeyman of the Ardennes and podium finisher at the world championships, dazzled with an attacking but also efficient style, a beautiful style that produced results, a combination that was not always easy to achieve.
These days Marc Hirschi completes his first races with UAE Team Emirates. with the taste of the first moments of always, but the certainty that many eyes follow him, not in vain comes with the label of star, with the makings of a great and many expectations behind him.
He has been in the Volta a Catalunya and in the Itzuliaa duo of races in which he has had his first moments of competition in UAE Team Emirates: "The debut in the Volta was a little later than in other seasons, but it has given me another tone to my legs. Then in País Vasco, the sensations were better and I can see that the work is going well.".
A work towards the Ardennes, in particular Flecha Walloon and Liège-Bastogne-Liège, which did not prevent him from being useful for Tadej Pogačarwhen the stopwatch was rewarding the attack of Rogličon the final day of Itzulia.
Feeling useful, that's another key, because "I feel very good in the team. I feel at home. I think I've made a good start and they've welcomed me with open arms.. That feeling was consolidated in the first few races, improving my form day by day."
Eyes on Wallonia
After the cobblestone classics, after Flanders and all the plethora of races surrounding it, finishing in the Flecha Brabanzona in which Matteo Trentin has been very high, the change of closet takes place in UAE Team Emirates. The "pedrosa riders" are left at home and another style of cyclist enters, a more "tourmanic" and long-distance profile to tackle the great races of the Ardennes.
I feel good," Hirschi says, "but there's work to be done to get to the front. That's normal when you start the season late. However, we have a strong team, with several assets to play with".
Despite not being a part of the game because of two positives for Covid19, Marc Hirschi left us a description of the famous climb: "It's a brutal climb, very hard. The key lies in knowing how to wait for your moment, because it's so hard, so steep that it's easy to burst if you attack too early. The day I won I had tremendous legs and I rode very well positioned. It was the perfect strategy.
"It's a brutal climb, very hard. The key is to know how to wait for your moment -explains the Swiss- because it's so hard, so steep that it's easy to burst if you attack too early. The day I won I had tremendous legs and I rode very well positioned. It was the perfect strategy.
Four days later comes what they call the "Dean", the "Doyenne", the oldest classic among the five monuments.The race that goes from Liège to Bastogne and back to the Walloon capital, a section that was decided as such because it was the one that gave the journalists of the first editions time to cover by train.
For Hirschi, the strategy changes this time: "I will have Tadej Pogačarby my side and things are different. We will play my trump card, but also his, even that of other riders who have shown conditions for this race."
In fact last year, on the boulevard de Liège, I was took place one of the most unique arrivals of the campaign.campaign, as it was the one that was marked by Julian Alaphilippe's premature celebration of thewho was overtaken at the last moment by Primoz Roglič. With them were the aforementioned Hirschi and Pogačarwho ended up on the podium due to the Frenchman's disqualification, after Alaphilippe made dangerous maneuvers towards the finish line.
From that experience, Hirschi, who even had to take his left foot out of the cove during the sprint because of the Gaul's eses, drew conclusions that he hopes to put into action this edition: "In such a long race, with so many climbs, some very hard, that it is very important to tiptoe around problems and eat a lot to arrive as well as possible at the finish."
Between Wednesday, April 21 and Sunday, April 25, we will have answers.
PhotosBettiniPhoto / Fizza Photo
