After a strong few weeks, Marc Hirschi missed out on crowning his season at the home World Cup. The Bernese driver finished sixth, just off the podium, but has a lot of positive things to take with him for the future.
It’s a missed opportunity. Clear. Marc Hirschi has emphasized often enough beforehand how important this World Championship race is to him. Also knowing that it will probably be a unique opportunity to be able to compete for the rainbow jersey in front of the home crowd. His impressive form in recent weeks has made Swiss fans dream of their first World Cup title since Oscar Camenzind in 1998.
Carried by the atmosphere
And it was precisely these fans who created an impressive atmosphere in and around Zurich on Sunday afternoon that is otherwise only known from the Tour de France, the Belgian classics or, most recently, the Olympic Games in Paris. When Hirschi climbed the steep Zürichbergstrasse for the last time in the midst of the crowds, he took the mood seriously and attacked 24 km from the finish from a group with co-favorites Remco Evenepoel and defending champion Mathieu van der Poel. The Swiss gets away.
Ahead of him are the Latvian Tom Skujins and the Irishman Ben Healy – and Tadej Pogacar. The high-flyer from Slovenia, who will be Hirschi’s teammate in the UAE Emirates team until the end of the year, has already sought to escape to the front with over 100 km to go. Nobody in the field reacted after the three-time Tour winner started. “Everyone knew that if you went along with it, you would explode at some point and be left with nothing.”
Everything risked, everything lost
Hirschi knew that if he wanted to give his gold dream another chance, he had to put everything into the balance in the final round. “I thought to myself, maybe Tadej will break in.” But while Pogacar drove along the Gold Coast towards his triumphant first world title, the medal slipped away from the Bernese.
In the meantime there had been a big merger in the field of pursuers. Primarily because the Belgian Evenepoel made it back to Hirschi in a descent with the last of his strength. Van der Poel also benefited from this, and that in turn was bad for Hirschi. Because the Swiss knew: “If I reach the finish line with Mathieu, it will be difficult.”
And that’s how it happened. Van der Poel secured the bronze medal in the sprint for third place. After a successful surprise attack shortly before the end, silver went to the Australian Ben O’Connor. After a self-sacrificing final lap on the spectacular street circuit, Hirschi found himself empty-handed in sixth place after almost six and a half hours of driving; not the result that he and the Swiss audience had hoped for.
Back to 2020 levels
Hirschi was still “satisfied with my performance. Of course it would have been very nice to get a medal. But I’m taking a lot of positive things with me,” he said at the finish. “I saw that I could be right at the front. I want to build on that next year.”
Hirschi is now riding again at the level he reached four years ago when his star rose at the Tour de France during the Corona season. This was followed by a strong autumn, including winning bronze at the World Championships.
The World Cup remains a big goal for him next year. With the move to Fabian Cancellara’s Swiss Tudor team, he has “good support”. And very important: He will then be able to take part in the concert of the big players again during the year, not like last time at UAE, when he moved back in the hierarchy and was mostly only able to demonstrate his skills in smaller races.
This will be the case again on the Tour of Lombardy in two weeks if the Bernese Pogacar is supposed to help them win. Afterwards, Swiss cycling fans can look forward to Marc Hirschi in a key role again.
