Simon Pellaud and Sébastien Reichenbach will ride for Fabian Cancellara’s Tudor Pro Cycling Team in 2023 following confirmation of the Swiss squad’s promotion to ProTeam status.
Pellaud announced his early departure from Trek-Segafredo last month and his transfer to Tudor was formally confirmed on Monday. Reichenbach ended his seven-year association with Groupama-FDJ at the end of the 2022 season and he had been heavily linked with a move to the Swiss team.
Tudor Pro Cycling Team will thus have a 20-strong roster for 2023, some 15 of whom are new arrivals. As well as the experience of Pellaud and Reichenbach, the team will be able to rely on Danish road champion Alexander Kamp, who joins from Trek-Segafredo, and Swiss time trial champion Joel Suter, who spent 2022 with UAE Team Emirates.
Swiss road champion Robin Froidevaux, who won the Serenissima Gravel race in October, remains with the team for 2023.
As anticipated in October, Ricardo Scheidecker joins Tudor Pro Cycling Team’s management from QuickStep-AlphaVinyl, where he had served as technical and development director since 2017. The Portuguese is credited as an architect of the project that helped Remco Evenepoel to Vuelta a España victory.
Scheidecker, who previously worked at Tinkoff, Leopard-Trek and the UCI, will, in his new team’s words, “help cultivate the talent of future winners.” Sebastian Deckert joins from DSM as the team’s head coach.
The squad began as the Swiss Racing Academy in 2019, with Cancellara's involvement limited to the informal role of 'mentor.' In April of this year – on the eve of the Tour de Romandie – his position changed to that of owner, with Tudor watches coming on board as a sponsor. The squad’s stated ambition was to gain promotion to ProTeam level in 2023 and then target participation in the biggest races from 2024.
"I don't do unserious stuff, otherwise I stay home, I go on the beach and have a good time with my family. If I do things, I want to do them properly and right. And I think the partner we have is serious and proper," Cancellara told Cyclingnews in October.
"I'm not the director, I'm not the soigneur, I'm not the chief master. I'm not Lefevere, Bjarne Riis or Jonathan Vaughters. I'm an addition, but I have good people around me. So when we go and present our team, it's not just me. It's this 'us' and this 'we,' not this 'I.'"
As well as operating as a ProTeam in 2023, Tudor will continue to field an under-23 squad in keeping with its original mission statement to develop Swiss talent.
Tudor confirmed that their bikes will again be supplied by BMC. “The expansion in equipment will fuel the team’s ambition by allowing them to compete in multiple races on the same day, helping them meet their 2023 season goals.”
Tudor Pro Cycling Team 2023 Roster
- Tom Bohli (Swi)
- Nils Brun (Swi)
- Sebastian Changizi (Den)
- Aloïs Charrin (Fra)
- Arvid De Kleijn (Ned)
- Jacob Eriksson (Swe)
- Lucas Eriksson (Swe)
- Robin Froidevaux (Swi)
- Mika Heming Germany
- Alexander Kamp (Den)
- Petr Kelemen (Cze)
- Arthur Kluckers (Lux)
- Simon Pellaud (Swi)
- Rick Pluimers (Ned)
- Sébastien Reichenbach (Swi)
- Joel Suter (Swi)
- Roland Thalmann (Swi)
- Yannis Voisard (Swi)
- Luc Wirtgen (Lux)
- Maikel Zijlaard (Ned)
