Marc Hirschi wrote the history books this week by becoming the first Swiss rider to win the prestigious under 23 men’s category UCI Road World Cycling Championship, and it was an impressive one.
It was a stroke of pure genius which saw the champion ride a very tactful and carefully measured race to ensure he beat the challengers to the finish line after a grueling 179.9km race that lasted for 4 hours 24 minutes and 5 seconds.
A pivotal moment
The initial part of the race was led by riders Mark Padun (Ukraine) and Patrick Muller (Switzerland) until the pair got into a tussle midway up the summit of the final climb after being attacked by Bjorg Lambercht (Belgium) which ousted the pair from the lead of the race, which was then taken up by Lambercht and Jakko Hanninen (Finland) with Hirschi bringing up the rear.
The race winner described the descent of the second laptop to be a pivotal moment of the race where him and three fellow Swiss riders were able to break away from the peloton, giving them a comfortable gap from the group hot on their heels.
From there Hirschi was able to chase down the leaders before playing his ace at the final descent of the race with 10km remaining where he switched to maximum attack and was able to surprise his challengers before eventually winning the race in style.
