Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ) is one of the top Classics riders hoping to disrupt the dominance of Visma-Lease a Bike as he kicks off his cobbled campaign at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad this Saturday.
The Swiss rider leads French side Groupama-FDJ in his seventh appearance at Opening Weekend and is hoping for a top five with the bigger cobbled goals arriving later in spring.
“Omloop is gonna be the first test along the Flemish roads, so you wanna be good there obviously. But the big goals, they’re in April with Flanders and Roubaix,” said Küng to Cyclingnews at the Volta ao Algarve.
“Top five would be good, like you’re up there in the mix but you still have chances to do it better… But I would also take the win in Nieuwsblad, I wouldn’t mind that,” laughed Küng.
After returning to competition for the first time since his horror crash in the European Championships, Küng was strong in his 2024 debut in the Algarve. He took ninth overall in a stacked field behind eventual winner Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) and one of his key rivals for the weekend - Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike).
He wasn’t worried about hitting the ground running too early, however, confident that his best form would arrive at the correct moment after his off-season. Algarve was just a step in his preparation for the Classics.
“That's why Algarve is my first race, I’m sure if I wanted to be 100% in Nieuwsblad I probably would have started my season earlier,” Küng said with his bigger goals in mind. “I know all the work I put in, it will pay off”
Küng started his last two seasons in Portugal and in that time has racked up impressive results in the cobbled races, establishing himself as one of the top Classics riders in the world. In 2023 he was sixth and fifth in Flanders and Roubaix respectively, while in 2022 he was fifth and third in the same races.
He will be without Groupama-FDJ’s other Classics star Valentin Madouas at the start in Gent, however, with the Frenchman opting to ride home races at the Faun-Ardèche and Faun Drome Classic instead.
Küng doesn’t believe this will change much for Omloop for the French team, with Madouas better suited to the longer day out in De Ronde. Not to say Het Nieuwsblad, at 207km is by any means short or easy, but that the extra 70km of racing in the Monument makes it better for the punchier Classics riders.
“In the end, you’ve got to adapt to the racing and I think in a race like Flanders it's like you have more opportunities, because Nieuwsblad also maybe comes down to one decisive moment - if you're there you're there, if you're not you're not,” Küng said.
“I think the racing in Flanders suits him [Madouas] better where it is harder for a long time.”
Küng had been towards the front of proceedings for the opening 170km of last year’s Omloop but missed the vital four-man move that saw Dylan van Baarle get away and eventually take a solo victory.
He was climbing well in Portugal but won’t want to let any yellow jerseys get themselves up the road as has been the case for the past two seasons. The team lining out to help him do this contains the talented young British duo of Lewis Askey and Sam Watson, alongside experience from Sven Erik Bystrøm and Olivier Le Gac.
Between Opening Weekend and Roubaix is a jam-packed schedule for the Swiss man with Strade Bianche, Tirreno-Adriatico, E3, Gent-Wevelegem, Dwars Door Vlaanderen and De Ronde all on his calendar.
