TUDOR PRO CYCLING TEAM

The disappearance of IAM Cycling, which had been active between 2012 and 2016 and raced in the Tour de France from 2014 through 2016, left a Switzerland-sized hole in the pro cycling peloton. Even BMC (2007–2018) was Swiss-owned but used to race under an American licence. Swiss Racing Academy was launched in 2018 to fill this vacuum and, even more importantly, provide a pathway to the top for young talents such as Stefan Bissegger, Mauro Schmid, Yannis Voisard and Robin Froidevaux. In 2019, it competed as a Continental team. The following season, the former champion Fabian Cancellara took it under his wing, first as an adviser and later as team owner.

The watchmaker Tudor clocked in as main sponsor in May 2022, laying the groundwork for the structure to move up to the second division at the end of the year. Success was not long in coming, as the Dutch sprinter Arvid de Kleijn triumphed in the 2023 Milano–Torino and another two riders stood on top of the podium of two stage races held in north-western France: the Dane Alexander Kamp in the Pays de la Loire Tour, and Simon Pellaud, a cyclist from Valais who embodied the soul of the Swiss outfit, in the Tour de Bretagne. He has become its face in Europe, the Americas and Asia, where the watchmaker is expanding its market.

Tudor Pro Cycling has continued to develop year after year. Arvid de Kleijn netted the team its maiden WorldTour victory in the 2024 Paris–Nice, building up to its first Giro start and, eventually, its Tour de France debut in 2025. Signing Marc Hirschi (sixth in the world ranking at the end of 2024) and the 2020 and 2021 world champion, Julian Alaphilippe, one of the movers and shakers of the Grande Boucle since 2016, was its passport to the race.

On his first outing with his new team, Alaphilippe celebrated victory in Carcassonne (stage 15), but it was only a mirage: he had merely won the sprint for third place, unaware that Tim Wellens and Victor Campenaerts had already crossed the finish line. Matteo Trentin, fifth in Lille and sixth in Paris; Alaphilippe himself, fifth in Boulogne-sur-Mer and eighth on Mont Ventoux; Michael Storer, third in Vire and fifth in Mont-Dore; and Alberto Dainese, eighth in Laval and sixth in Valence, all cracked the top 10 in stages to complete a remarkably consistent performance for a rookie team.