"If you are the fastest, it doesn't matter who else starts" - Stefan Küng confident of success in opening Giro d'Italia time-trial

Groupama - FDJ's Swiss time-trial specialist, Stefan Küng, has expressed his belief that when it comes to the opening time-trial at the Giro d'Italia, he has to be considered one of the overall favourites to take the Maglia Rosa.

“It is very pleasant to return to the Giro now," Küng reveals in a discussion with his team's official website. “Especially with that opening time-trial it is nice. In such a race against the clock you focus on your own goals and if you are the fastest, it doesn't matter who else starts.”

Having won a time-trial stage of the Volta ao Algarve earlier this year, Küng is understandably confident of replicating his prior success. “Yes, Filippo Ganna, Remco Evenepoel and Primoz Roglic are here, but I did a time trial this season and I won it,” the 29-year-old says where among other Kung defeated the likes of Ganna and world time trial champion Tobias Foss.

Kung will take to the startline at 16:36:00 CET and with Roglic and Ganna going off either side of him it's sure to be a blockbuster period of the opening time-trial.