Still aged just 27, March Hirschi has won a huge amount of races to date in his career, but a look back on his performances suggests he was at the peak of his powers between the ages of 22 and 25. The Swiss rider - now competing for Tudor Pro Cycling - took just one victory last year, and now acknowledges that strike rate was not what he and his team expected.
In a bid to get moving again, especially on the short punchy climbs, Hirschi said he has changed his training regime and is now doing fewer miles in a bid to increase his condition for racing. He also plans to reduce the number of races he rides in the hopes he will stay fresher this season.
"Before the start of the season, let's say I slightly reduced the number of kilometers to be fresher," he said. "The goal is to compete a little less to have more time to train, to focus more on explosiveness, which I believe is my defining characteristic, perhaps what I lacked last season. In short, 'less is more', as they say…"
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Hirschi won La Flèche Wallonne and a stage of the Tour de France back in 2020. In 2023 he claimed seven wins, including the overall at Tour de Luxembourg. And in 2024 - his peak year to date - he claimed nine races, including the GC at Czech Tour (2.1) in July of that year, and then six of his next seven one-day races.
He was at UAE Team Emirates for this best years, before starting with Tudor this time last year. However, having tweaked his training and his approach to racing this year, he believes he can get back to his best, especially as he has worked with a mental coach.
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"I can't deny it helped me a lot," he told bici. "I've been working on it for a while; I've already had to deal with many disappointments in my career, and at times it wasn't easy , because you're always trying to improve and then you don't get the results you expected, you feel like you've worked in vain.
"Overall, I managed it quite well; the winter was helpful for a mental break, especially during the season. You have little time to move forward."
And while UAE has gone from strength to strength since Hirschi left, he believes Tudor Pro Cycling has the talent on its ranks to do serious damage this year.
"I think we're growing rapidly as a team now and have a good chance of winning, of finding a lot of space even in this cycling world of champions. With Alaphilippe, with whom I've built an excellent relationship, we can share the leadership and achieve great things.
"I like being a leader and having a lot of freedom, so it's nice to have the team's trust; it's given me a lot of motivation; I don't see it as pressure."
