Stefan Kung reacts to seventh place finish at the Tour of Flanders: "I was a bit too enthusiastic"
CyclingMonday, 07 April 2025 at 11:00
Stefan Küng finished a strong seventh in Sunday’s Tour of Flanders, a race dominated by Tadej Pogacar’s incredible late race move. The Groupama – FDJ rider took a bold approach mid-race and reflected on his decisions in a post-race interview with Eurosport.
“Before the start, the plan was to ride defensively and follow my intuition,” said the 31-year-old. “The race was special because of the crashes. The pace was high on the Eikenberg and Wolvenberg, and my teammates were lagging behind, so I thought it was a good moment to attack. I joined from the back and we formed a good group.”
Küng admitted that his aggressive racing may have come too soon, but he was determined to make something happen in the race.
“Maybe I was a bit too enthusiastic and wanted to create a gap, but unfortunately the cooperation wasn’t great, which made us lose a lot of our lead. After the Oude Kwaremont I didn’t have much time to recover, while I needed it. I went from defensive to more attacking and decided to just give it a try. Of course I didn’t want to finish seventh, but I played my cards and didn’t want to have any regrets. And I don’t.”
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KerisVroom10-04-2025 - Pogi is an outlier. You cannot prove an outlier using the statistical data of average pros. If he releases the data, it will only cause even more suspicion. In 2020 TDF he was dropped by Roglic in the mountains. So how does he do the TT where in the flats he nearly beat Tom Dumoulin and beat everybody else on the climb by a ton. No matter what Pogi is too much of an outlier which can be proven by dataabstractengineer10-04-2025
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maria2024202410-04-2025 - It's kinda crazy that people who make a living in professional sport don't understand how competition works. You have the sport. You have pharmaceuticals which may improve performance. You test for as many as you can. If you pass the tests, you keep your result. It's only in cycling that a substantial minority think that all results should be provisional for 15 years. In nearly every other sport, people watch and enjoy what they see, or if they don't like what goes into producing what they see, they don't watch.
Barney10-04-2025 - It is pretty cool that a Grand Tour rider is even riding Paris-Roubaix, much less in the discussion for a podium. This is a throwback across many generations of cyclists to the pillars of Hinault and Merckx. Enjoy it while it lasts.Barney10-04-2025