Stefan Küng is contesting his sixth season with the French Equipe Groupama-FDJ
With a 3rd place in “Across Flanders” Stefan Küng succeeded in the main test for the Tour of Flanders
Küng has been one of the world’s best in time trials for years
Küng has also been able to show off his great qualities again and again in the classics
Stefan Küng and Roger Federer during a panel discussion at the Swiss Olympic meeting last November
Stefan Küng also has high standards in 2024 – Gallery
Stefan Küng is contesting his sixth season with the French Equipe Groupama-FDJ
With a 3rd place in “Across Flanders” Stefan Küng succeeded in the main test for the Tour of Flanders
Küng has been one of the world’s best in time trials for years
Küng has also been able to show off his great qualities again and again in the classics
Stefan Küng and Roger Federer during a panel discussion at the Swiss Olympic meeting last November
Stefan Küng has had an eventful few months. After a series of strokes of fate, the professional cyclist is in a season full of highlights. The Tour of Flanders on Easter Sunday begins.
Flashback, European Championship time trial last September. Stefan Küng crossed the finish line covered in blood and with a completely demolished helmet after he crashed into a barrier while flying blind while on course for a medal. The terrible sight takes your breath away.
For Küng, a season that had reached its absolute lowest point with the death of compatriot Gino Mäder in June ended prematurely. The serious accident at the Tour de Suisse completely threw Küng off track.
The 2024 season had barely started when another stroke of fate struck the time trial specialist at the end of February. He and his wife Céline were expecting their second child in August, but the unborn child died during the pregnancy.
Don’t feel like doing anything
In the first week after the miscarriage, a certain level of disbelief was noticeable, says Küng in an interview with Keystone-SDA. “I didn’t feel like doing anything.” So not cycling either – otherwise his great passion, which he turned into a career more than ten years ago.
Küng ponders, he knows that the big classic races are coming up soon. In the back of his mind are the countless hours he invested over the winter to achieve his goals in 2024. It was difficult to process the whole thing in such a phase. “I knew I actually had to train, but I realized it wasn’t possible.”
Küng and his team decide to take a break from racing. Instead of traveling to Italy and competing with the competition at Strade Bianche and Tirreno-Adriatico, he stays in Frauenfeld with his wife and one-and-a-half-year-old son. “It was important that I could be at home for a relatively long time to process what had happened with the family.”
Successful main rehearsal in Flanders
A little over three weeks have passed since then. Küng started racing again in mid-March. Unlike in previous years, in the first classics of this season there was “nothing countable” on his results sheet for a long time, as he himself said. In such situations, it is important to “keep calm and stay cool, even if that is sometimes not easy.”
And promptly: The first top 10 placement of this World Tour season followed on Wednesday in the Belgian one-day race “Across Flanders”. Küng even finished on the podium in third place in the last test before the Tour of Flanders on Easter Sunday.
This also confirmed that he is ready for the really big classics. A week after Flanders, Paris-Roubaix follows the cobblestones and is Küng’s favorite race.
Küng’s results in the last two events of these two races are impressive: as fifth (2022) and sixth (2023) in Flanders and third (2022) and fifth (2023) in Roubaix, he demonstrated consistency at a very high level. But for Küng it is clear: “It cannot be my aim to come fifth or sixth again. The goal must be to get on the podium or, in the best case scenario, to win.”
Step by step and with enough breaks
With the Gold Race, the first part of a season that has many highlights in store for Küng ends in mid-April – at least that’s the plan. “Then the focus will be on preparing for the Olympic Games. That’s the big goal in the summer.” The Tour de Suisse and then the Tour de France also fall into this phase. Then there is a third block with preparation for the home World Cup at the end of September in Zurich.
It is important not to look too far ahead. “It would be wrong to only think about the Olympic Games now. I like to take things step by step and work towards something.” In order to be optimally prepared for the season highlights in summer and autumn, Küng is planning to take longer breaks from racing this time – once after the spring classics and also after the Olympics.
And what does he dream about when he thinks about the two major events in summer and autumn? «You have many dreams. “Ideally, you win all the important races that you set out to do,” says Küng and then briefly reflects. «An Olympic medal is certainly the goal. I already have World Cup medals, so the goal at the World Championships has to be the title.”
Of course he knows how difficult it is to achieve these goals. “But when I see where I have been in previous years, I measure myself against these standards.” Luck was often not on his side in the time trials. In Tokyo, Küng missed an Olympic medal by four tenths of a second, and at the 2022 World Cup in Australia he was less than three seconds short of the world title.
Well positioned for the classics
But, as Küng says: don’t look too far ahead. The classics are just around the corner, and the Thurgau native sees himself well prepared as the leader of the Groupama-FDJ team. «We are in a good starting position. We have three cards we can play this year with Valentin Madouas (the up-and-coming New Zealander – ed.), Laurence Pithie and me. This could be a decisive advantage for the Swiss on Sunday in Flanders, so that he doesn’t have to close the gap himself every time the pace increases and still has enough energy at the finish.
sda
2024-03-29 03:22:50
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