His season was delayed by injury and beset by difficulties along the way, but Marc Hirschi finishes his campaign with four victories after he swooped clear on the final gravel descent to win the Veneto Classic ahead of his UAE Team Emirates companion Davide Formolo.
Three of Hirschi’s wins this year – at Per Sempre Alfredo, the Giro della Toscana and now in the Veneto – have come on Italian roads, which prompted a playful question from a local reporter in the press room in Bassano del Grappa: “Marc, how is it that you only win races in Italy?”
Hirschi took the question in the intended spirit. “I don’t know,” he smiled. “It’s mostly only small climbs and I really like this. It’s a good race, and most of the Italian races suit me.”
During the pandemic-condensed season of 2020, it looked as though just about every kind of race suited Hirschi, the former world under-23 champion. In the space of five dizzying weeks, the Swiss rider illuminated the Tour de France with incessant attacking and a stage win, before adding a bronze medal at the Worlds and victory at Flèche Wallonne.
Replicating that dynamic run was never going to be straightforward, and Hirschi was hardly helped by his surprising release from Team DSM just days into the 2021 season, with both parties settling on a non-disclosure agreement. He quickly found a home at UAE Team Emirates, but dental issues and nagging injury limited his impact during his debut campaign.
Hirschi’s sophomore campaign – hip surgery and a most trying Tour de France notwithstanding – was more encouraging, even if he acknowledged that he is still chasing the sparkling form that carried him so far and so quickly two years ago.
“It’s difficult to compare. In 2020, I was in a different role, it was a short season, and I had a good preparation with the corona time because I could do a lot of kilometres,” Hirschi said. “So overall, I’m really happy. It was better than I expected after the injury so I’m happy with the season so I hope I can take this level with me in the next season, continue like this and maybe take a step to win a big race.”
This day 12 months ago, Hirschi sound a similarly optimistic note after he took second behind Samuele Battistella in the inaugural edition of the Veneto Classic, but his winter was plagued by that troublesome hip, which ultimately required the surgery that postponed the start of his 2022 season until late March. He was immediately off the mark with a win at Per Sempre Alfredo, however, and he was a solid if unspectacular performer in the Ardennes Classics.
Hirschi was initially deemed surplus to requirements for the Tour de France after a COVID-19 diagnosis forced him to abandon the Tour de Suisse. He earned a late reprieve when Matteo Trentin tested positive for the coronavirus on the eve of the race, but the three weeks proved to be an ordeal. A further cluster of COVID-19 cases meant that Tadej Pogacar had just three teammates left in the third week, but Hirschi was running on fumes by that point.
“I was four weeks in altitude camp, and I invested a lot of effort, but after I got COVID at the Tour de Suisse, they said I couldn’t go. I was really sad, but I could understand it because I wasn’t 100%,” Hirschi said.
“Then Trentin got COVID, so they took me, but I was just not good enough. I kept hoping I’d get better the next day, because we didn’t have a lot of riders, so it was important I stayed there, but in the end, I didn’t get better, and I also had a knee injury from a crash.”
A reset was required. Hirschi spent over six weeks without racing before completing his season with a series of ten one-day races in France and Italy. In September, he won a five-man sprint to win the Giro della Toscana in Pontedera, while last week he helped Pogacar to Il Lombardia victory.
At the Veneto Classic, Hirschi was able to follow teammate Formolo and Nicola Conci (Alpecin-Deceuninck) on the short, gravel-strewn final climb to Diesel Farm before forging clear on the descent. As the sun drooped gently over the Brenta, he rolled into the cobbled heart of Bassano del Grappa with a 10-second lead on Formolo to end his year on a high.
“After the Tour, I did one month of a break and then I could build up again,” Hirschi said. “Towards the end of the season, that really helped me because I was fresher, both physically and mentally, so I was really ready for these races.”
This week, Hirschi will travel to the United Arab Emirates for his team’s first gathering ahead the 2023 season. Modern cycling never seems to stop, but then Hirschi, finally picking up a little momentum, is already casting his mind ahead. “Now I hope I have a good winter,” he said. “And then I hope I come back next season on the same level as now.”
