CyclistGrand Tour first-timers: Tudor Pro Cycling at the Giro dItaliaElectricity fills the air as sports director Matteo Tosatto delivers his pre-Giro dItalia race briefing. Focus. Stay together. The big objective for us is a win, he says.Tudor Pro Cyclings eight riders are hanging on his every word as he brings up a projected map of the 2024 Giro route and runs through the key stages and stats: 44,650m of elevation, 7,000m down on the previous year. Piece of cake, then. Related Posts Which bike brands, groupsets and wheels won the most at Grand Tours in 2024? Behind the scenes at the Giro dItalia with photographer Chris Auld The best photos from the Giro dItalia 2024 This is Tudor Pro Cyclings first Grand Tour. Looking around the hotel meeting room, there are Grand Tour veterans and debutants. Matteo Trentin is a stage winner in all three Grand Tours and is about to embark on his 13th in total. Robin Froidevaux is completely new to this.Tosatto says there are eight bunch sprint opportunities in the 2024 Giro, and they are their best eight chances for a win. The team may be here at the race organisers discretion as a wild card invitation, but they havent turned up just to show off the sponsors name in doomed breakaways. Their style of racing aims to live up to their marketing tagline: Born to Dare. Besides, team owner Fabian Cancellara didnt strive for mid-pack anonymity during his own career.David Powell / CyclistThis race is the next step for one of the sports most ambitious up-and-coming squads. A ProTeam in the sports second tier since 2023, Tudor Pro Cycling have been making waves in the WorldTour this year, winning a bunch sprint with Arvid de Kleijn at Paris-Nice and the Tour de Romandie prologue with Maikel Zijlaard.After Tosatto finishes, head of sports Ricardo Scheidecker stands up. Formerly of Leopard-Trek and QuickStep, the Portuguese motivates, plans and leads from the shadows. He doesnt give many interviews hes a doer rather than a talker but Trentin calls him the engine of the squad.We dont have any stars, but we dont need any stars. We showed that already this first part of the season, Scheidecker says. The Giro is gonna be fucking tough. But these are the moments where unity helps us to move forward.Alberto Dainese, Matteo Trentin and Robin Froidevaux (seated, from left to right) listen intently to the pre-racing briefing ahead of another days racing at the Giro.David Powell / CyclistIf youre here, its because you have character, he adds. We are the underdogs, we always keep a low profile. When its tough, we keep our calm. Were gonna mess up one, two, three sprints. That can happen, but you have to believe.The selected riders have spent three weeks training at altitude at Sierra Nevada. Theyve ridden through a deluge on stage at the team presentation. Theyre wearing new Tudor watches, the just-released Pelagos FXD Chrono Cycling Edition. They know this is a seismic moment in the teams brief existence so far.Swiss former pro and Tudor Pro Cycling owner Fabian Cancellara, who took over the team at the end of 2020.David Powell / CyclistThe teams CEO, Raphael Meyer, built like a human greyhound, skinny and bequiffed, delivers an emotive final flourish: When we speak about belief and the will to do something great, today we can. And as many of you knew when we first thought about the Giro, it was about bringing someone who now looks down on us, he says. Were also here for Gino.Yes, the promising Swiss stage racer Gino Mder was set to join and lead the team in 2024 before his death in a crash at the Tour de Suisse in June 2023. He would have been here and hes proud up there. Hes proud, Meyer says. The room erupts into applause.A team with time on its handsWhen Cyclist sits down for breakfast on the eve of the Giro in Tudors Turin hotel, the teams press officer asks me how our car is. Its OK, just an Opel, nothing special, we reply at the curious opening gambit. That wasnt what she meant. It transpires that Tudor Pro Cycling had three cars broken into in the hotel car park overnight, including Cancellaras Mercedes. Cue a trip to the police station and precious time spent sourcing replacement glass. So much for a warm Giro dItalia welcome.David Powell / CyclistThe team started life humbly as Continental outfit Swiss Racing Academy, which Cancellara took over at the end of 2020, unwilling to see 16 riders dreams destroyed when it looked like the team might fold. Watchmaker Tudors involvement then upscaled the project and the scope of its ambitions.Tudor, part of the same Swiss company as Rolex, is a global brand with links to the All Blacks rugby team, Alinghi in sailing, and David Beckham (in his pre-race meeting, Meyer told the riders that they are all David Beckhams). The money the watch brand brings to the team means they now have the spending power to attract riders of the calibre of Trentin, Alberto Dainese and potentially Marc Hirschi, with whom they have been heavily linked for 2025. Meyer wont be drawn on their budget: We behave like Tudor in this: we dont speak about time and money. We have time and a little money, he says.Matteo Trentin gives his son the best seat in the house as he soaks up the Grand Tour atmosphere.David Powell / CyclistAccording to Meyer, the teams motto Swiss, Human, Performance is about building not just physically better cyclists but better people. That means working on communication skills and having open dialogue around success and failure.Its not about being in a comfort zone and happiness, but still a bit, Meyer says. One of his Giro goals is to avoid any ego trips or fights.This is a team with a WorldTour mindset, ambition and backroom experience thanks to staff additions such as Scheidecker, ex-Ineos Grenadiers data scientist Teun van Erp and mechanic Christophe Desimpelaere.Tudor Pro Cyclings riders get to grips with the Giro dItalias transparent daily sign-in board.David Powell / CyclistIn year one, we spent more on salaries for staff than riders, Meyer says. This probably never happened in a cycling team before. Why? Because we set the foundations to be right. Riders come and go, but the staff remain.Its a marathon, and also a sprintFour of the squads eight new riders in 2024 came from Dutch team DSM-Firmenich PostNL, including Dainese. A lot of their hopes for the Giro depend on the Italian, who has proven he can get over the mountains better than many rival fast men, which he translated into Giro stage wins in 2022 and 2023, as well as a stage win at the Vuelta in 2023.Despite WorldTour interest, Dainese says joining Tudor is a step up, not a step down. However, his spring campaign was blighted by a February training crash, which saw him break teeth and damage his jaw. Injured riders can easily be forgotten in the cut and thrust of the cycling season.David Powell / CyclistI had a similar crash in 2022 and I felt so lonely. You only see the physio every day for rehab, he says. This years injury kept him away from racing for two months, but he was heartened by Tudors pastoral care, receiving regular calls from colleagues, be it his coach, the team doctor, fellow riders or sports directors.Given the unparalleled support of a leadout train shaped around him, Dainese admits hes feeling the pressure to perform before the Giro.The winning process is hard in cycling, road captain Trentin says. Eight of the last ten Monuments were won by two guys. Its dominated by a few actors, and you need to be good enough to sneak around them.Bunch sprinting has moved on since Trentin was part of Marcel Kittels leadout at QuickStep. Theres more stress because of the level of the bunch. You need to increase your gearing, but the system is about timing, position, picking the right side of the road. Its crazy because it takes a lot of time for a decision that takes seconds, he says.David Powell / CyclistTheres a sweet spot between moving into place too late and burning out too early, says final leadout man Froidevaux: One of the really important things is staying calm. Even though its a moment of chaos, it takes one bad choice to ruin everything.If Tour de France stage winner Trentin, signed from UAE Team Emirates, shows the scale of Tudor Pro Cyclings ambition, 25-year-old Grand Tour debutant Froidevaux is a sign of their continuity and rider development. He was part of the Swiss Racing Academy squad when it was upscaled to Tudor in 2022.I was expecting it to change, to grow, but not this much, this fast and this well, Froidevaux says. Last year the lineup was mainly riders who were under the radar or unknown. And we won quite a lot of races.Tudors experienced directeur sportif Bart Leysen imparts some words of wisdom to his riders.David Powell / CyclistThoroughbred sprinter De Kleijn led the way for the team with six victories, including Milano-Torino and a stage of the Deutschland Tour.A winners approach to losingThe Giros first two stages come and go without much attacking intent. While Tadej Pogaar goes on the rampage, Tudors riders are saving energy for the bunch sprints, although Tudors Michael Storer attacks on the way to sixth at Santuario di Oropa, his best finish of the race. Its the start of a resurgent showing from the Australian climber.Stage 3 between Novara and Fossano is their first real opportunity for success. Its a flat finish with a stubborn, short rise in the finale. Inside the team bus, the tension is palpable as the teams top brass watch the tightly-packed riders approach the finish.A WorldTour race winner last year at the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race, Marius Mayrhofer was one of Tudor Pro Cyclings big winter signings.David Powell / CyclistWe have to be in the second row, Scheidecker growls. The wild card team are well-marshalled, vying with Lidl-Trek and Alpecin for position. For a few moments in the finale, a fairytale victory looks distinctly possible.Go Daino! bellows Tudor head of innovation Kurt Bergin-Taylor, up on his feet with Meyer. Dainese looks poised, but doesnt pull the trigger and ends up being swamped by his rivals. Minutes later, the Italian sits dejectedly on the bottom step of the team bus, his jersey unzipped.Only just audible above the hum of the team bus generator, German domestique Alexander Krieger say to a directeur sportif, We have to stop making the same mistakes. It turns out to be the story of their Giro: close, but no Prosecco.Fast forward three weeks to the end of the race and Daineses best finishes are a couple of fourth places, as Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) and Tim Merlier (Soudal-QuickStep) take the lions share of flat stage wins from a competitive field. After losing crash victim Krieger and Marius Mayrhofer mid-race, Tudors sprint train no longer functions at optimum efficiency.Former Danish national champion Alexander Kamp pulls on a jacket after the Stage 2 finish at Santuario di Oropa.David Powell / CyclistPost-race, Cyclist asks Meyer what Krieger had meant about mistakes.What he was referring to, for me, was mostly lacking trust in the group, Meyer says. You make mistakes when youre not used to something. On the positive side, a guy like Robin [Froidevaux], here from day one almost, finished his first Grand Tour never on the limits. Its perfect proof that our way of working works.Storer also showed his prowess, saving his best for the final mountain stage and finishing tenth overall despite a nerve-inducing last day crash.Not winning is also positive. It helps you keep motivation high, Meyer says. So it was a great start to Grand Tour racing for Tudor Pro Cycling. Its about knowing we can, that there is nothing that prevents us from doing even two Grand Tours in a year. Thats the goal for next year, he says. The Tour de France could be next.At the Giro, Tudor Pro Cyclings riders may have managed to reach Rome in three weeks but, as the saying goes, Rome wasnt built in a day. So watch out for eye-catching transfer moves and bold racing; this could be only the beginning of the Tudor dynasty.Alberto Dainese is spent after finishing tenth in the first bunch sprint finish on Stage 3.David Powell / CyclistInnovate to be greatAs youd expect from a Swiss watchmaker, Tudor approach their race preparation with precisionIts the job of head of Tudor Pro Cyclings head of innovation Kurt Bergin-Taylor to come up with ways to give the riders a competitive edge. With a masters and PhD in exercise physiology and nutrition, the Briton has introduced some interesting innovations to the Tudor setup in the chase for performance benefits.Take the teams Assos skinsuit: rather than simply sourcing a generic offering, Tudor worked with the Swiss company to develop three for sprints, Classics and climbing.Ultimately, were in the results business, says Bergin-Taylor, who is also coach to the likes of Alberto Dainese and Arvid de Kleijn. But definitely in the short-term phase of the team, its all about the process. We have various things we measure, whether it be aerodynamic drag with certain riders or the speed of sprints with our key sprinters.Maikel Zijlaards Tour de Romandie prologue win shows the fruits of the teams balanced focus between innovation and perspiration. A corkscrewing 2.28km course with 12 corners meant a win could be meticulously reverse-engineered.First, they identified the right man for the job a Dutch former track rider turned leadout man with a big anaerobic threshold and devised specific training sessions to replicate the accelerations and decelerations needed for the staccato effort.Finally, after analysing the course in their simulations, they opted for a road bike with a disc wheel and deep-section front wheel over a TT bike. The result? The teams second WorldTour win and first in their native Switzerland. This article originally appeared in issue 156 of Cyclist magazine. 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