Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ) won the opening time trial stage of the 2023 Tour de Suisse on Sunday.
The stage had been predicted by many to be a fight between Belgians Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) and Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma), but they had to settle for second and third respectively behind the Swiss home favourite.
Küng has had his fair share of heartbreaking near misses in past time trials like this, but today managed to win by a comfortable margin on the 12.7km course.
His time of 13:31 was six seconds quicker than Evenepoel’s second-best time, and 10 seconds up on Van Aert.
So often the bridesmaid in his big season goals, especially against stars like Evenepoel and Van Aert, Küng’s victory today comes after a run of very consistent results in time trials, as he pointed out in his post-win interview.
"Just this morning a friend of mine said: 'how long have you been in the top five of time trials?’ We had to go back two years to find one where I wasn’t in the top five.
"In the last times I was always missing out and it was so close, so it’s such a big relief to win here in front of the home crowd. With my family, my wife, my son, it’s just amazing."
Küng was competing today in his first race since the Giro d’Italia, which he withdrew from at the end of the first week, disappointed with his fifth and fourth place finishes in the race’s two time trials. He was not completely confident that his condition was good enough to win the stage.
"From the Giro to the Tour of Switzerland, it was quite a short time. I did some altitude training and I was working really really hard, and then I just felt really tired Wednesday. Since then I was just focussing on recovery, so I was not 100% self-confident," he said.
"But I saw all my friends and family here, which for sure gave me some extra motivation. I knew I could do well, but I also didn’t want to put expectations too high. But I always go full gas, and today it worked out once again."
Does he think he might be able to defend the overall lead, and climb like he did last year, where he surprised everyone to finish fifth on the GC?
"Sure, I will honour the jersey, and go as hard as I can. Tomorrow I think for sure I can defend it, then we will see pretty soon with the first mountain stage [on Tuesday]. Honestly, I can’t promise anything, but for sure I will fight for it."
He will surely come under pressure from Evenepoel, who is comfortably the best-placed of the predicted GC contenders.
Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates) is also well-placed, having finished 10th at 25 seconds, even if it wasn't as impressive as his ride to win the time trial at the Tour de Romandie in April.
Ion Izagirre (Cofidis) and Jay Vine were 11th and 12 respectively at 27 seconds, Pello Bilbao (Bahrain-Victorious) 23rd at 37 seconds, Romain Bardet (DSM) 25th at 39 seconds, while Sergio Higuita (Bora-Hansgrohe) lost a whole minute in 77th place.
How it unfolded
Warm, dry conditions greeted the riders at the out-and-back course in Einsiedeln, with the rain that was predicted as a possibility failing to materialise.
Romain Grégoire (Groupama-FDJ) set the early benchmark with a time of 14:06, averaging just over 54kmph, before Matteo Sobrero (Jayco-AlUla) bettered it by a whole 15 seconds.
A flurry of riders all posted new quickest time at the intermediate time check halfway into the route in quick succession: Nikias Arndt (Bahrain-Victorious), Rigoberto Urán (EF Education-EasyPost), Alex Aranburu (Movistar) and Matteo Cattaneo (Soudal-QuickStep). But each of them faded in the second part of the course, and Sobrero’s time at the finish remained unchallenged.
Cattaneo fared better than the rest, but he too fell eight seconds short, and had to settle for the second quickest time.
Cattaneo’s best time at the intermediate check remained the fastest for a while, until a flying Magnus Sheffield (Ineos Grenadiers) arrived a whole seven seconds quicker. And unlike the others, Sheffield managed to maintain his pace, and went on to set a new fastest time at the finish, nine seconds quicker than Sobrero.
24-year old Johan Price-Pejtersen was a surprising challenger to Sheffield’s time, coming closer than anyone else up until then with an effort six seconds slower, but the American’s benchmark remained intact until the top pre-race favourites took to the course.
Küng, Van Aert and Evenepoel were all still well in contention for the stage win at the intermediate time check, where they all posted times within five seconds of Sheffield, but Stefan Bissegger (EF Education-EasyPost) was on a difficult day and already fourteen seconds adrift.
Küng sped up significantly in the second half, and continued to push a smooth, high cadence as the finish line approached. At the line, he posted a whole 11 seconds quicker than Sheffield.
It was an imposing benchmark, and one that neither Van Aert or Evenepoel could respond to. Evenepoel misjudged one of the corners during a descent in the final kilometres, but even getting that right would not have been enough to find the six seconds he needed to better Küng’s time.
Küng will now wear the leader’s jersey for tomorrow’s second stage, a hilly day finishing in Nottwil.
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