It is with substantially identical ambitions that Julian Alaphilippe and Marc Hirschi are preparing to begin their thirteenth and eighth seasons as professionals. The two leaders of the increasingly ambitious Tudor team will shape their 2026 by targeting the same objectives: the Ardennes classics and the World Road Championships in Montreal.

However, to arrive in top condition for these appointments, the two-time World Champion and the strong Swiss rider will follow different paths. The French rider born in '92, coming off a good end to 2025 thanks to his victory at GP de Quebec and podium at Tre Valli Varesine, will start his year at the Volta ao Algarve and then continue with a dense block of races in Italy (Strade Bianche, Tirreno-Adriatico and Milano-Sanremo) before heading to the Tour of the Basque Country prior to lining up at Amstel, Flèche and Liège.

No cobblestone classics, therefore, for the thirty-three-year-old from Saint-Amand-Montrond who, in the second part of the season, will focus on preparing for the World Championships in Canada, which, by his own admission, is a course that "he likes" and could be his "last chance" to aim for the rainbow jersey. Alaphilippe has clearly taken up the final part of a career rich with successes and prestigious achievements that, even today, have not diminished his hunger and motivation to try to make his mark on some other occasion.

"I am clearly close to hanging up the bike and it's evident that I won't stay in cycling much longer, but I still have two years of contract and a lot of fire inside me," the experienced French rider stated during his team's media day, revealing with great tranquility that he still has no trouble finding the right motivation to race and prepare himself at his best.

"Now it's different for me and I'm even enjoying it more than before. If that weren't the case, I wouldn't be so motivated to prepare for this season and for all the goals I've set for myself. No, motivation is not a problem for me, and when you still have this fire inside, it's a good sign. I'm super charged up for this year and for 2027. Retirement? Maybe in a few months I'll start thinking about it, but for now, I'm not thinking about it at all."

Marc Hirschi, on the other hand, still has several years of career ahead of him, at least on paper. After a less fruitful season concluded with only one victory (at the Clàssica Comunitat Valenciana 1969), in 2026 he will try to bounce back, also putting Ardennes and Worlds at the center of his program.

Unlike Alaphilippe, the twenty-seven-year-old from Bern will start competing at the Figueira Champions Classic in Portugal, then line up at Tour des Alpes-Maritimes, Faun Ardèche Classic and Trofeo Laigueglia, and then fine-tune his form with a high-altitude training camp that will lead him to skip Sanremo and Basque Country. His competitive return will then be at the GP Indurain, an event that will allow him to rediscover race rhythm before the Northern Classics, after which he will compete in GP Frankfurt and, for the first time in his career, the Giro d'Italia.

"I expected more from last season, so in 2026 I want to do things slightly differently. It's time to make some changes to my race program and training, focusing a bit more on explosiveness and racing less to be fresher for the big goals. I will also participate in the Giro for the first time, and I'm very excited about the idea," commented the winner of the 2020 Flèche Wallonne, determined to hunt down the rainbow jersey he narrowly missed in 2020 with the third place in Imola behind van Aert and his current teammate Julian Alaphilippe.