Marc HIrschi can be dashing straight from general victory on the Czech Tour with UAE Team Emirates to affix the Swiss group in Paris, with the rider a late call-up for the Olympic Games street race after the choice was made to withdraw Stefan Bissegger.
Bissegger, who got here sixth on the 32.4km particular person time trial on Saturday, was on account of race alongside Stefan Küng on the 273km August 3 occasion however has been grappling with again ache.
“Since the top of the Tour de France per week in the past, the 25-year-old from Thurgau has been affected by muscle ache in his again, which is a results of the excessive degree of exertion,” stated a launch on Swiss Cycling. “Bissegger was in a position to overcome this ache within the Olympic time trial on Saturday. However, he’s unable to face up to an extended interval of exertion.”
Hirschi, who was named as a reserve when the Swiss group was introduced on the finish of June, will shift into Bissegger’s place. Swiss Cycling stated the Late Athlete Replacement Process had been initiated for Hirschi, and the 25-year-old would kind a duo with Küng that “can be looking for medals on Saturday”.
Both riders can be lining up at the beginning line within the shadow of the Eiffel Tower to tackle their second Olympic Games street race, with Küng, who completed eighth in Saturday’s time trial, and Hirschi each having raced collectively in Tokyo. Then HIrschi, had gained each a Tour de France stage and La Flèche Wallonne within the previous season however had a quieter 2021 outcomes lead in and he ended up being the nation’s prime finisher within the climb-heavy Olympic street race, coming twenty fifth.
This time Hirschi is coming into the occasion on the again of a stable run of outcomes via the season, having gained 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 general win, a stage win and two stage runner up spots.
The final Swiss rider to clinch a medal within the males’s Olympic street race was Fabian Cancellara, who claimed silver in Beijing in 2008. Cancellara additionally claimed gold twice within the time trial, in 2008 and 2016, whereas Küng fell in need of a time trial medal in Tokyo, ending fourth and simply four-tenths of a second off the rostrum.
Marlen Reusser, nevertheless, delivered for the Swiss group in Tokyo, claiming silver within the time trial however she too needed to pull out of the Olympic group for Paris due to a lingering sickness. So did the nation’s 2021 Olympic champion within the cross-country mountain bike, Jolanda Neff, resigning her spot forward of the Games on account of respiration points.
Still, within the subsequent biking occasion set to unfold, the nation can be hoping the medals will begin to stream, with Nino Schurter and Mathias Flückiger main the cost within the males’s cross-country mountain bike race on Monday, July 29.
