After a strong few weeks, Marc Hirschi misses out on crowning his season at his home World Championships. The Bernese rider finishes sixth, just off the podium, but takes a lot of positives with him for the future.
It's a missed opportunity. Of course. Marc Hirschi emphasized often enough in the run-up to the race how important this World Championship race is to him. Also in the knowledge that it will probably be a unique opportunity to race for the rainbow jersey in front of his home crowd. His impressive form in recent weeks has made Swiss fans dream of the first World Championship 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, the likes of which are otherwise only seen at 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 amidst the crowds, he took the atmosphere seriously and attacked 24 km before the finish from a group with co-favorites Remco Evenepoel and defending champion Mathieu van der Poel. The Swiss rider gets away.
Ahead of him are the Latvian Tom Skujins and the Irishman Ben Healy - and Tadej Pogacar. The high-flyer from Slovenia, a teammate of Hirschi's in the UAE Emirates team until the end of the year, has already sought to escape to the front over 100 km before the finish. No one in the peloton reacted to the attack by the three-time Tour winner. "Everyone knew: if you ride there, you'll explode at some point and end up with nothing."
Risked everything, lost everything
Hirschi knew that if he wanted to give his gold dream another chance, he would have to put everything on the line in the final round. "I thought to myself, maybe Tadej will crack". But while Pogacar rode along the Gold Coast towards his triumphant first World Championship title, the medal slipped away from the Bernese rider at the back.
In the meantime, the chasing pack had formed a large group. Primarily because the Belgian Evenepoel made it back to Hirschi on a descent with his last ounce of strength. Van der Poel also benefited from this, which in turn was bad news for Hirschi. Because the Swiss knew: "If I get to the finish line with Mathieu, it will be difficult."
And that's how it turned out. Van der Poel secured the bronze medal in the sprint for third place. Silver went to the Australian Ben O'Connor after a successful surprise attack shortly before the end. After a sacrificial last lap on the spectacular city course, Hirschi was left empty-handed in sixth place after almost six and a half hours of riding; not the result he and the Swiss public had hoped for.
Back to the level of 2020
Hirschi was nevertheless "satisfied with my performance. Of course it would have been great to win a medal. But I'm taking a lot of positives with me," he summed up at the finish. "I've seen that I can ride at the front. I want to build on that next year."
Hirschi is now back at the level he reached four years ago, when his star rose in the Tour de France during the coronavirus season. This was followed by a strong fall, including winning bronze at the World Championships.
The World Championships remain a major goal for him next year. With the move to Fabian Cancellara's Swiss Tudor team, he has "good support". And very importantly, he will then be able to take part in the concert of the big names again during the year, unlike recently with UAE, when he was pushed down the hierarchy and was mostly only able to demonstrate his skills in smaller races.
This will be the case again in two weeks' time at the Tour of Lombardy, when the Bernese rider will help Pogacar to victory. After that, Swiss cycling fans can once again look forward to Marc Hirschi in a leading role.
SDA
