The dress rehearsal didn’t go entirely to plan, but Stefan Küng wasn’t inclined to panic when he made his way through the mixed zone after last week’s European Championships time trial in Hasselt with a silver medal around his neck.
“When you’ve been European champion twice, you want to win again, but in the end it’s a race against the clock and the clock doesn’t lie,” Küng said after losing out to Italy's Edoardo Affini. “But sometimes it’s better to be behind in the rehearsal and then have everything for the big one, because Zurich is obviously the big goal.”
A World Championships on home roads – the first in Switzerland since 2009 – has been the obvious focal point of Küng’s late-season, and on Sunday afternoon, he will line up among the top tier of contenders for the individual time trial title.
After a bronze medal in Imola in 2020 and silver in Wollongong two years ago, Küng has designs on the rainbow jersey here. But global championships haven’t always been kind to the Swiss rider, who missed out on bronze in the time trial at the Tokyo Olympics by just 0.4 of a second.
Küng had hoped to make amends at the Paris 2024 Olympics, but he was hampered by illness after abandoning the Tour de France in the final week, and he had to settle for eighth in the time trial and seventh in the road race. Many in Küng’s position would have throttled back at that point with the Worlds in mind, but the Groupama-FDJ man volunteered himself for a Vuelta a España debut, reckoning the Spanish race was the best way to reboot his season.
“My summer was not great,” Küng told Cyclingnews at the end of the Vuelta. “The preparation leading up to the Tour de Suisse and Tour de France was already interrupted by some sicknesses, and then coming out of the Tour, I got COVID. Then I got stomach problems in the Olympic Games, so I just wanted to feel good again. That is what I felt I was doing on the Vuelta. I’m feeling like myself again, I’m on my level again and this racing is fun.”
Küng was an all-action presence on the Vuelta, racing aggressively and delivering some notable climbing performances to boot, but a bike rider cannot live on good vibes alone. The flat final time trial in Madrid was always the halo of Küng’s thinking through the Vuelta, and he duly hurtled around the course to beat Primoz Roglič by half a minute and claim the first Grand Tour stage victory of his career.
That victory will have been a boon to Küng’s morale ahead of the Worlds, while he was clear-headed in his assessment of the European Championships silver medal on a pan-flat course. “I had good legs, but it felt like I did maybe too much climbing in the last three weeks,” he said afterwards.
Sunday’s course in Zurich, both longer and hillier, is of a different register. After setting out from Oerlikon, site of the finale of the much missed Züri-Metzgete, the 46km course has a rugged middle section before sweeping back into the city along the shores of Lake Zurich.
“The time trial course is a really long one. There’s a flat section first, then a section with some hills and then the last part is flat again,” Küng said. “So you have to ride it in three parts – and it’s a real TT, eh.”
A real time trial with a lot of real contenders, even if Wout van Aert has been ruled out through injury, and Josh Tarling and Filippo Ganna have yet to confirm their presence. Reigning champion Remco Evenepoel will be on hand, of course, as will Roglič, but Küng warned against paying too much heed to who will or will not be there.
“I have to focus on myself,” Küng said. “I know there is going to be a high-level field. Maybe one or two guys will be missing, but that’s always going to be the case and it’s always going to be hard to win."
"I know that from 2022, when I beat all the favourites and then I got beaten by Tobias Foss, who nobody really had on the favourites list that day. I know that you always have to push to the end and give the maximum of your effort to become World Champion.”
Tackling the Road Race
Küng already has a pair of world titles from the mixed team relay, which Switzerland won in Wollongong and Glasgow, but his participation in the hat-trick attempt at home is not yet certain. The absence of Marlen Reusser will weigh on the decision, as will his ambitions for the road race the following Sunday.
“With Marlen out, our chances are not as high as they usually would be, so we will see,” said Küng. “But for sure in two races I will be at the start.”
The time trial understandably dominates Küng’s thinking this week, but he has a fine pedigree in the road race too. He claimed bronze in Yorkshire in 2019, after all, as well as fifth in last year’s attritional outing in Glasgow.
Despite illness, he was also a solid seventh in the road race at the Paris 2024 Olympics, while his climbing at the Vuelta suggested that he won’t be daunted by the 4,400m of altitude gain in the road race, which takes in seven laps over the climbs of Zürichbergstrasse and Witikon.
“I’ve seen from the past. I’ve been third at the Worlds, I’ve been fifth last year, I know how it’s done, I know in the long races I can do well in them,” Küng said. “First the focus is on the time trial, and then it’s one week in between where I can focus on the road race. For sure, the Vuelta was the best possible preparation for the road race, because it’s going to be hard, with a lot of altitude metres, but it’s not going to be a pure climber’s race, so it’s a perfect lead-up to it.”
Tadej Pogačar underlined his status as favourite with his solo victory at the Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal, while Evenepoel is another obvious contender, but Switzerland will be able to lean on strength in numbers in Zurich. While Küng and Mauro Schmid showcased their form at the Vuelta, Marc Hirschi has enjoyed a remarkable winning run in his final weeks at UAE Team Emirates, racking up five successive wins from the Clásica de San Sebastián through to the Memorial Marco Pantani.
“That’s a good thing about our Swiss team, we have several cards to play,” Küng said. “Mauro Schmid is also in good form and together with Marc, we’re going to have several options, that’s for sure. That’s how we will play it. If it comes down to a one-on-one with Pogačar, it’s going to be difficult, but we will try to be opportunistic and give it a go.”
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