Tudor Pro Cycling have come on leaps and bounds in the years since Fabian Cancellara decided he wanted to bring a Swiss team back to the forefront of professional cycling. In just 20 days will come the biggest moment in their young history, as they head to the Giro d’Italia for their Grand Tour debut.
It won’t just be a Grand Tour of learning, if sports director Matteo Tosatto’s words are anything to go off, with the Italian stating that Tudor’s key focus will be on winning. They won’t be simply chancing their hands at getting into breaks but taking responsibility in the peloton.
Tosatto, who arrived at Tudor ahead of this season, oversaw great victories during his time with Ineos Grenadiers, including Tao Geoghegan Hart’s triumph at the Giro in 2020. Now he’s ready to take that experience into the ProTeam’s first invitation to a three-week race.
“I’m always happy going to the Giro but the second, more important question is can you take a good result? We have a young group with two or three riders with a lot of experience and the spirit isn’t going to the races just to start,” Tosatto told Cyclingnews before stage 1 of the Tour of the Alps in Neumarkt/Egna.
“The spirit is to take responsibility at the race. That’s our mentality, it's important to work on this mentality for the guys – go into the race for a good result, not just to start and to look at chances in the break.
“Go into the race to try and win the race, go in there to finish top five. It's a young group, but they are strong. For me, Fabian [Cancellara], for everyone, it’s important to give maximum support to the young riders but also to support changing the mentality of the riders – go into the race to win the race.”
This mentality was best shown in action on stage 2 of Paris-Nice where Tudor took to the front in the final kilometre with the experienced Matteo Trentin before he left the rest of the lead-out train to deliver Arvid de Kleijn in the perfect position to take their first WorldTour level win. Don’t be surprised to see similar bravado come the three weeks of the Giro.
Tudor are riding one of their final warm-ups for the Giro at this week’s Tour of the Alps, where they are looking to test proven Grand Tour stage winner Michael Storer’s legs ahead of his second appearance at the corsa rosa.
“For us, the Tour of the Alps is an important race for the whole team, especially before the Giro d’Italia,” Tosatto said.
“It is also an important test for two or three riders who are arriving from a long altitude training camp. I have a lot of confidence, especially in Michael Storer and Florian Stork.”
Storer hasn’t yet returned to the flying form which saw him take two Vuelta a España stage wins and the King of the Mountains classification in 2021 while with DSM, but Tosatto believes the Australian is close to reaching that level again just in time for the Giro.
“Michael [Storer] was very good in UAE and Paris-Nice after suffering from the cold, in the last stage he was very strong. He took a small break and just arrived yesterday from 19 days in training camp,” Tosatto said.
“He had good feedback from the training camp. He had good numbers, his spirit was super good and also his head. He’ll try the maximum possible to stay up there on GC at the Tour of the Alps.”
The Swiss squad have yet to name their Giro line-up, but Storer, Trentin and two-time stage winner Alberto Dainese all look certain to be in Turin on May 4. Simon Pellaud, constantly on the attack at the Giro of 2020 and 2021, also looks likely to line out next month. The Swiss rider, inevitably, formed part of the break on Monday's opening stage of the Tour of the Alps.
Whatever the line-up, the Giro is a huge opportunity for Tudor to take on the WorldTour teams and take another step towards joining cycling’s top division in future promotion cycles.
“Our first time in a Grand Tour and it's the Giro d’Italia. The Giro is the first big tour of the year and for all the team they are super happy but also super focused.” Tosatto said.
"We decide the team next week I think but Alberto [Dainese] has come back after his crash and won in France and with Trentin, Storer, I have confidence we can take a great result.”
Storer finished in the second group on the downhill finish of stage 1 at the Tour of Alps but should be allowed some freedom from the GC favourites as he now sits 34 seconds in arrears heading into the second day.
