Marc HIrschi will be rushing straight from overall victory at the Czech Tour with UAE Team Emirates to join the Swiss team in Paris, with the rider a late call-up for the Olympic Games road race after the decision was made to withdraw Stefan Bissegger.
Bissegger, who came sixth at the 32.4km individual time trial on Saturday, was due to race alongside Stefan Küng at the 273km August 3 event but has been grappling with back pain.
“Since the end of the Tour de France a week ago, the 25-year-old from Thurgau has been suffering from muscle pain in his back, which is a result of the high level of exertion,” said a release on Swiss Cycling. “Bissegger was able to overcome this pain in the Olympic time trial on Saturday. However, he is unable to withstand a longer period of exertion.”
Hirschi, who was named as a reserve when the Swiss team was announced at the end of June, will shift into Bissegger’s place. Swiss Cycling said the Late Athlete Replacement Process had been initiated for Hirschi, and the 25-year-old would form a duo with Küng that “will be hunting for medals on Saturday”.
Both riders will be lining up at the start line in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower to take on their second Olympic Games road race, with Küng, who finished eighth in Saturday’s time trial, and Hirschi both having raced together in Tokyo. Then HIrschi, had won both a Tour de France stage and La Flèche Wallonne in the preceding season but had a quieter 2021 results lead in and he ended up being the nation’s top finisher in the climb-heavy Olympic road race, coming 25th.
This time Hirschi is coming into the event on the back of a solid run of results through the season, having won Faun Drôme Classic in February, come second at Amstel Gold Race in April and on Sunday he walked away from the four-stage Czech Tour with the overall win, a stage win and two stage runner up spots.
The last Swiss rider to clinch a medal in the men’s Olympic road race was Fabian Cancellara, who claimed silver in Beijing in 2008. Cancellara also claimed gold twice in the time trial, in 2008 and 2016, while Küng fell short of a time trial medal in Tokyo, finishing fourth and just four-tenths of a second off the podium.
Marlen Reusser, however, delivered for the Swiss team in Tokyo, claiming silver in the time trial but she too had to pull out of the Olympic team for Paris because of a lingering illness. So did the nation’s 2021 Olympic champion in the cross-country mountain bike, Jolanda Neff, resigning her spot ahead of the Games due to breathing issues.
Still, in the next cycling event set to unfold, the nation will be hoping the medals will start to flow, with Nino Schurter and Mathias Flückiger leading the charge in the men’s cross-country mountain bike race on Monday, July 29.
