Career
Hirschi began competing in cycling at the age of 11, inspired both by his father's passion for the sport and by the success of Fabian Cancellara, who hails from the same region as Hirschi. He initially competed in mountain biking, before also practicing road, track and cyclo-cross as a teenager. [4] He was a two-time national junior road race champion, winning in 2015 and 2016. In 2017, he was recruited by the BMC Development Team for his first season in the under-23 category, joining Development Team Sunweb the year after.
In September 2018 it was announced that he would join Team Sunweb from 2019 on a three-year contract, having been a member of Development Team Sunweb in 2018. [5] [6] In the same month, Hirschi won the under-23 road race at the UCI Road World Championships in Innsbruck, Austria. [7]
During his first year as a pro in 2019, he finished third in the Clásica de San Sebastián. In late August 2020, he entered the Tour de France, [8] during which he won a stage, three combative rider awards for his performances on individual stages and the overall Combativity award. One week after the end of the Tour, he took the bronze medal in the Men's road race at the Road World Championships in Imola. [9] Three days later Hirschi took the win at La Flèche Wallonne, pulling away from the rest of the lead group in the last 50 metres of the final climb of the Mur de Huy. He was the first Swiss rider to win the race since Ferdinand Kübler in 1952. [10] [11] Several days later, he also finished second to Primož Roglič at Liège–Bastogne–Liège.
In January 2021, Hirschi's contract with Team DSM was terminated by mutual consent, [12] and he signed a three-year contract with UAE Team Emirates. [3] That season, he only took one victory: stage two of the Tour de Luxembourg, going on to finish second overall. [13]
He opened the 2022 season in late March with a win at the Per sempre Alfredo race in Italy. In June, he won the Grosser Preis des Kantons Aargau. The following month, he was selected for the Tour de France only two days before the start of race after Matteo Trentin was forced to withdraw after testing positive for SARS-CoV-2. [14] Hirschi took two more wins in Italy towards the end of the season at the Giro della Toscana and the Veneto Classic.
Hirschi started 2023 in Australia, finishing eighth in the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race. [15] In February, he crashed on the first stage of the Volta ao Algarve, fracturing a radius. He returned to competition at the end of March. In May, he finished fourth at Eschborn–Frankfurt, before winning stage three of the Tour de Hongrie, taking the race lead in the process. [16] Hirschi was able to hold on to the race lead for the remainder of the race, marking his first stage race victory. In June, he became the Swiss National Road Race Champion for the first time. [17] In September, he won the Coppa Sabatini and the Tour de Luxembourg, both events on the UCI ProSeries calendar. [18]
In February 2024, he won the La Drôme Classic, his fourth race of the season, after a late attack. [19] In April, he placed second to Tom Pidcock at the Amstel Gold Race.
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