‘Having WorldTour invitations gives some peace’ – Tudor Pro Cycling aim higher in 2026 with Küng, Alaphilippe and Storer as leaders

The Tudor Pro Cycling team is not part of the WorldTour in 2026, but will compete and surely be successful at the highest level as they cdìontinue to grow and improve with Swiss precision and Fabian Cancellara’s ambition.

The team made just a few strategic signings for 2026, adding Stefan Küng and Luca Mozzato to boost their Classics squad, the USA’s Will Barta and Robin Donzé from their development team. Alberto Dainese left for Soudal-QuickStep, but Julian Alaphilippe, Marc Hirschi and Michael Storer remain in the second year of their contracts.

Storer won stage 7 at Paris-Nice and finished fifth overall, then also won the Tour of the Alps, rode the Giro d’Italia and the Tour, before finishing third at Il Lombardia.

Julian Alaphilippe struggled to be competitive in his first few months at Tudor, but he was often a vital team player and came close to a stage victory at the Tour. The Grand Prix Cycliste de Québec was his only victory in 2025, but it was indicative of a return to his best. Matteo Trentin also returned to form, winning Paris-Tours at the end of the season.

Hirschi was again below par in 2025 and was not involved in the team leader’s presentation media moment. It will be interesting to see how he performs in 2026.

Thanks to their UCI points haul in 2025, ProTeam Tudor secured automatic invitations to all the WorldTour races. Cancellara and team CEO Raphael Meyer will travel to Australia to see his riders in action at the Tour Down Under.

“We do all the Classics and all three Grand Tours,” Cancellara said, confirming their 2026 race programme.

“We’ll be proud to see the guys racing in Australia at the Tour Down Under after we went there in 2020 when we were still creating the team.

“For sure, having WorldTour invitations gives some peace. It’s new for us, before it was ‘could we go’ to races. Now we can go everywhere and even choose – comfortable situation. We won’t change everything. We’ve added races, but having a guaranteed calendar helps a lot.

“2026 is an important start to the three-year WorldTour cycle. To reach that WorldTour goal for 2029. We also want to win a stage at a Grand Tour and we’re also looking forward to the Classics.

“If we do things right, put things in place, 1+1=2, so we will get the results.”