The Swiss Stefan Küng, a specialist in timekeeping, won the inaugural time trial of the Tour de Suisse on Sunday, beating Belgian prodigy Remco Evenepoel by six seconds, returning to competition after contracting Covid-19 during the last Giro.
On an almost completely flat route, the Swiss rider from Groupama-FDJ covered the 12.7 km of this 1st stage in 13 min 31 sec, beating Evenepoel and the other Belgian star of the peloton, Wout Van Aert (Jumbo- Visma), 3rd at 10 seconds. “It feels so good to win again, especially here. There was little time between the Giro and the start of this Tour of Switzerland, but I was able to find a good condition”, reacted Küng, already winner “at home” during the time trials which opened the season. event in 2018 and 2021. “Now I have the leader’s jersey. I will defend it as long as I can, but I can’t promise anything.”
Even if he did not win the stage, Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-Quick Step) can be reassured by his physical condition after having had to abandon the Giro, of which he was the great favorite, last month, due to a a positive test for Covid-19. Among the other favourites, Spaniard Juan Ayuso (UAE) finished 10th on Sunday, 25 seconds behind Küng. Frenchman Romain Bardet (DSM) for his part lost 39 seconds, but will have enough to find a route more to his liking during this Tour of Switzerland. From Monday, the road will indeed lead the peloton to the Alps for a very mountainous week, with in particular a 211 km stage on Thursday between Fiesch and La Punt comprising two out-of-category passes.