Tour de Suisse: Stefan Küng wins opening time trial

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The 2021 Tour de Suisse opened with a Swiss one-two at the opening time trial in Frauenfeld, as Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ) powered to victory on the 10.9-kilometre course, beating Stefan Bissegger (EF Education-Nippo) by four seconds to take the first leader's yellow jersey of the race.

Mattia Cattaneo (Deceuninck-QuickStep) rounded out the stage podium in third place with a strong ride to finish 12 seconds down. His teammate Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-QuickStep) enjoyed the best result of the main GC contenders at the race, meanwhile finishing fourth, 19 seconds back.

Küng's result sees him take the leader's jersey at the race for the second time in his seven-year career, having previously worn it for four days after his BMC team won the opening team time trial back in 2018.

"It’s at home. I live one kilometre from here and it’s the roads that I train on every day," said Küng after the finish. "I had special preparation for this year’s Tour de Suisse. I can tell you that two weeks ago I would never have imagined sitting here because I was still building up my form and struggling in the first real TT training. I was feeling better each day and confident before the start. I knew exactly what I had to do and executed it perfectly today.

"I always had the impression when you’re young that the first victory is easier than the second because once you win, you’re expected to win every day. What makes this more special is that you do it at home.

"These are the roads that I train on every day. It’s where I live. I know all the people at the organisation committee, my friends and family are somewhere here on the side of the road. I won and took the yellow jersey. I did it three years ago here, but it was a team time trial. I’m really happy to wear the yellow jersey tomorrow."

Küng heads into a tough stage 2 – 178 kilometres to Lachen with three second-category climbs on route – holding both the GC and points leads, while Bissegger heads up the youth classification, and EF Education-Nippo lead the team classification.

How it unfolded

After a year out due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Tour de Suisse returned on Sunday with a short time trial in Frauenfeld to kick off eight days of racing that mirrored the planned 2020 race route.

The 10.9-kilometre test was a pan-flat affair around the town with some technical points but also plenty of straight sections, suiting pure time trialists and power riders.

Sebastian Langeveld (EF Education-Nippo) set the early running, putting up a time of 12:41 after setting off fourth. His time would only hold at the top of the leaderboard around half an hour, though, as his teammate, 22-year-old Bissegger, blitzed the course, setting a time 37 seconds and 2.6kph faster than the Dutchman.

Bissegger's time would hold up for much longer by comparison, with no riders coming close to his 54.2kph average speed. Max Schachmann (Bora-Hansgrohe) put in a good ride to briefly take second place at 12:29, before EF's Neilson Powless went four seconds faster minutes later.

In the meantime, Tom Dumoulin (Jumbo-Visma) made his return to racing after a months-long break from the sport. The Dutchman put in a solid display, setting a time of 12:32 in his first race since the 2020 Vuelta a España.

Fellow former world time trial champion Rohan Dennis (Ineos Grenadiers) would end up 10th with his time of 12:23, while Søren Kragh Andersen (Team DSM) was second fastest at one point with a time one second quicker, though dropped to sixth at the end of the day.

General classification riders had a mixed day on the bike, with Esteban Chaves (Team BikeExchange) clocking in at 150th in a time of 13:16, Marc Soler (Movistar) finishing 99th at 13:06, Jakob Fuglsang (Astana-Premier Tech) taking 58th at 12:53 after a close shave with a car stopped on course, Rigoberto Urán (EF Education-Nippo) finishing 43rd at 12:46, and race favourite Richard Carapaz (Ineos Grenadiers) taking 15th at 12:31.

World road champion Alaphilippe enjoyed the best day of the prospective GC challengers with his fifth place at the line, while his Classics rival Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Fenix) took 25th with a time of 12:38.

With just over an hour to go on the day, stage favourite Küng set out and duly did what everybody expected him to do on home ground. His time of 12 minutes dead wouldn't be challenged by the remaining men, with Cattaneo – the penultimate man out on course – coming closest.

Ineos Grenadiers youngster Pavel Sivakov rounded out the day in damp conditions – not that they hindered Cattaneo. The Russian ended up in 38th on the stage with a time of 12:44.