"I would say a six out of ten" - Time trial veteran riding his 12th World Championships in a row and comes off Vuelta stage win
CyclingSunday, 20 September 2026 at 12:15
Stefan Küng arrives at the Montreal World Championships for the elite men's time trial among the leading contenders behind clear favourite Remco Evenepoel. After analysing the course on Saturday's recon, the Swiss rider gives it a solid six out of ten.
A powerhouse in the discipline, Küng has taken 24 wins against the clock throughout his career and has twice picked up a medal. However, a rainbow jersey at elite level has eluded him over the past decade. After the Vuelta a Espana, he comes into Sunday's race with momentum.
Winning the stage 18 time trial in the Grand Tour, Küng then left the race and skipped the final weekend of the Grand Tour to get over to Montreal, hoping to ride the wave all the way back to the podium.
Evenepoel will be hard to beat, but with a challenging course for a multitude of reasons, it's not set in stone that the belgian will win his fourth world title in a row by the time the podium ceremony comes around.
A 39.2 kilometre circuit features a technical opening and closing segment, something that the Swiss rider honed in on when analysing the route, rather than focusing more emphasis on the complaints of other teams who admitted that poor surfaces and potholes could influence the race against the clock.
Stefan Kung
Küng analyses World Championships course
With 220 metres of climbing on the route, riders will wind through Montreal and onto the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve and then return to the city for an uphill finish. Although the middle section is designed to help riders build a high speed, the technical sections of the course could pose challenges.
“Some parts are really not that nice, especially the first part,” Küng told CyclingProNet.
“It can be technical, but then it’s a very bumpy road, so it’s quite tricky in some parts.”
A heavier rider than Evenepoel, the discipline's characteristics make a longer and flat section of a course a potential advantage for a rider of Küng's credentials as he noted he's a fan of the middle point of the course.
Can Küng finally win rainbow jersey on 12th attempt in a row?
“The middle part is really nice,” he added. “So I would say a six out of ten.”
Küng will compete in the elite men's time trial for the 12th time in a row on Sunday in a career's worth of chasing that rainbow jersey - finishing in top ten six times and twice on the podium.
His closest call came in 2022 as he missed out by two seconds to Tobias Foss and taking a silver medal. In 2020, he finished in third place as Filippo Ganna won his first world title.
He's a two-time European champion, however, after winning the 2020 and 2021 European titles, but has found rivals in Evenepoel and Ganna that have pushed the boundaries of the discipline and will rank among the greatest of all time.
Gavin QuinnCycling Journalist
Gavin Quinn is a cycling journalist and ultra-distance cyclist with a BA in Journalism from Dublin City University. Formerly the Press & Communications Officer for Cycling Ireland, Gavin has worked inside the national team at the World Championships and has reported for the Irish Mirror, Mirror UK, and The42.
His expertise is backed by elite-level access, having interviewed stars like Sam Bennett and Ben Healy, as well as immense personal endurance. In 2025, he completed a 12,000km solo cycle from Ireland to Vietnam, following a 4,600km tour across Europe. From the cobbles of Paris-Roubaix to the gradients of the Tourmalet, Gavin’s writing focuses on the "romance and brutality" of the sport. Having visited 50+ countries, he brings a global, cultural perspective to his coverage of the pro peloton for CyclingUpToDate.
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