Stefan Küng clearly misses out on the hoped-for medal in the time trial at the home World Championships in Zurich. Remco Evenepoel, the two-time Olympic champion from Paris, won and the rider from Thurgau finished eighth.
The top 3 were unbreakable. Behind defending champion Evenepoel, the Italians Filippo Ganna and Edoardo Affini took silver and bronze. Küng was 53 seconds off the podium. Stefan Bissegger had to make do with 29th place.
At the culmination point after 25 of the 46 km, it was clear that Küng would not be standing on the World Championship podium for a third time in the individual time trial: 67 seconds behind in ninth place. On the way to the finish, the gap grew to 1:48 minutes. Primoz Roglic in twelfth place obviously also felt the strain of the Vuelta. Slovenia's 2021 Olympic time trial champion was never on course for a medal.
Only Ganna was able to stand up to Evenepoel. After the uphill passages, the gap was only nine seconds, at the finish only six. Affini, who surprisingly finished in third place, was already 54 seconds behind. The highly rated Joshua Tarling finished fourth. The Brit lost more time on the mountain than he had hoped.
