Fabian Weiss will join the Pro Team in January 2025. But before that, the Swiss Time Trial champion still has a major event on his calendar: the 2024 UCI Road World Championships, which will take place in Zurich, 50km from his hometown Sulz.
23.09.2024
The Swiss rider will be taking part in his last World Championships in the U23 category: ‘I'll be racing the Time Trial, the TT Mixed Relay, and the Road Race. I'm really looking forward to it. The home World Championships will be special, it's a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
Fabian is approaching the big event with a relaxed attitude, buoyed by his two fifth-place finishes at the European Championships (Time Trial and Road Race) a week ago."I surprised myself a bit. The courses didn't suit me on paper because they were rather flat. I'm happy with my performance in the TT. The road race didn't turn out as we had imagined, so I had the opportunity to play my own card, and I took advantage of it".
These performances are certainly a boost of confidence ahead of the World Championships. ‘But what makes me feel good is my current form rather than the results,’ he said. ‘In the past, I had difficulties at the end of the season. We've changed the way I train, and I can feel the difference.”
Fabian did a recon of the TT course a week before the race with team-mate Aivaras Mikutis, another TT specialist, and Head of Development Boris Zimine. “The course suits me better than the one at the Europeans. There are a lot of ups and downs in the first 16 kilometres, with a few technical descents. The last 12.8 kilometres are flat, along the lake, where you must give it your all right up to the finish line. The effort will be long compared with that of the National Championships or the Tour de l'Avenir. But I'm not afraid of the distance. I just have to stick more to the pacing plan which worked well at the Europeans.”
The Mixed TT on Wednesday will be a new experience and for the Road Race a couple of days later, “Jan (Christen) is our undisputed leader. The course suits him very well and we're a 5-man team, so we'll be playing an active role and doing everything we can to shine in front of our home crowd.”
After that, and whatever the results, Fabian will be ready for the next step. “I'm very excited about the idea of turning professional. It's a dream come true. I've taken part in a few races with the pros this year and some of them were a bit of a shock, but I've made good progress. I trust the team, the team trusts me, so I'm confident and I think there's no better place for me than Tudor Pro Cycling for this new chapter in my career.”
Photos: Filip Bezdek and Sprint Cycling
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