Dreaming of the (World) Tour: What’s Behind the Tudor Pro Cycling Team’s Buying Frenzy?

The Tudor Pro Cycling Team isn’t the biggest name in the peloton, but if it’s up to team boss Fabian Cancellara, that will change in the coming years.

Since 2022, Tudor has been the title sponsor of the ProTeam, a group of teams located one level below the WorldTour. This means that Tudor is in the same situation as Lotto-Dstny, for example.

But Cancellara’s team really wants to go to the WorldTour, the highest level in cycling. With this classification you automatically have the starting rights in the biggest races and, as with Tudor now, you don’t have to rely on wildcards.

WorldTour licenses will be awarded again at the end of 2025 based on results in 2023, 2024 and 2025. Of course, you need a spearhead to collect enough points.

Tudor has some well-known names, including Arvid de Klein, Matteo Trentin, Alberto Daines, Marius Maierhofer and Michael Storer, but with Marc Hirschi and Julian Alaphilippe, it taps into a different segment of the market.

It’s no surprise that Hershey visits Cancellara. The three-time Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix winner was Hershey’s personal manager until long ago.

The Swiss will become one of the icons of the Swiss team, a logical choice. However, with Alaphilippe comes a similar profile, just as Hirschi is looking for the freedom at Tudor that he no longer finds in the UAE.

Cancellara believes the duo will essentially reinforce each other, but Alaphilippe is also part of the puzzle that Tudor has been putting together for several years.

Tudor wants to go to the Tour de France next year with the French accelerator. As the sponsor of the Giro, she can already take part in the Tour of Italy this year, but in France she will have to rely on the wild card. That was very ambitious this year.

Organiser ASO seems unlikely to ignore Alaphilippe and Tudor next year. This also represents a major blow to French teams such as TotalEnergies, who are also competing for limited wildcards.

In other words: Alaphilippe will have a lucrative 3-year contract at the age of 32, and Tudor takes a big step towards the Tour and WorldTour, although Alaphilippe’s results in the major races should improve significantly.

The fact that the French teams have been significantly weakened in one fell swoop is a bonus for Tudor. Cofidis, TotalEnergies and their partners: they are all hunting behind the net.

They ignore the French hair tie, which is still very popular in its homeland. And they have a formidable competitor for the Tour and WorldTour.