For starters, the brand was the official timekeeper of the race, with Tudor signage along the track, Tudor digital clocks tracking the race’s official time (which stretched on for more than five hours as the riders made 18 laps of the city-spanning circuit) and massive ads touting the brand’s cycling-specific chronograph, the Pelagos FXD Chrono Cycling Edition. The winner of the race also received a special one-of-one example of said watch with a special engraving on the caseback commemorating the victory.
But Tudor’s involvement went far beyond the typical role of an official timekeeper. The brand sponsors its own team — Tudor Pro Cycling — and is the only watch brand with an eponymous UCI team. Tudor’s team has only been competing since 2023, and it’s currently ranked as a UCI ProTeam, which is a rung below the top-ranked UCI WorldTeams. The team was invited to compete in the Québec race as one of two wild cards, the other being Team Canada.
In a twist that Tudor couldn’t have scripted better if it tried, Tudor Pro Cycling’s top rider — two-time UCI World Road Champion Julian Alaphilippe — won the Grand Prix Cycliste de Québec in a thrilling come-from-behind victory, taking the lead for the first time near the end of the final lap. As a result, he stood on the podium and received his special Tudor watch, while wearing a Tudor uniform, with a giant Tudor sign behind him.
The whole spectacle was very Tudor-heavy, of course, and was a striking symbol of how heavily the luxury watch brand had infiltrated this sport. Tudor sponsors other sports, too — the Alinghi Red Bull Racing sailing team that competes at the America’s Cup, and the Racing Bulls F1 team — but cycling is the only sport where the brand is setting the pace, so to speak.
Other watch brands do have a presence in cycling, to be sure. Tissot is the official timekeeper of the Tour de France and has a line of dedicated cycling watches. Breitling and Richard Mille both sponsor UCI teams, with the former sponsoring the Q36.5 ProTeam and the latter supporting UAE Team Emirates, the top-ranked team on the UCI World Tour.