"That’s where the title slipped away" – Stefan Küng 'convinced' Marlen Reusser mishap cost Switzerland World Championship title in mixed relay

Switzerland were left to ponder what might have been in Kigali, after a late mechanical derailed their charge for gold in the mixed relay time trial at the 2025 UCI Road World Championships.

Stefan Küng was unequivocal in his assessment. The veteran rouleur, who formed part of the Swiss men’s trio alongside Jan Christen and Mauro Schmid, insisted that Marlen Reusser’s untimely bike change was the decisive moment that robbed them of victory.

“It was just terrible luck,” Küng reflected at the post-race press conference. “Marlen didn’t want to put a number on it, but I’m convinced that’s where the title slipped away. Without that, we’d be world champions. But ifs and buts have made us champions plenty of times before.”

Reusser, fresh from her triumph in the individual time trial earlier in the week, had been central to Switzerland’s surge back into contention. In the space of 15 minutes, she and teammates Noemi Rüegg and Jasmin Liechti had overturned a 34-second deficit to Australia into a slender advantage, only for disaster to strike.

“My front derailleur just stopped working — I couldn’t shift anymore,” Reusser explained. “I thought: ‘fuck’. It takes time to change a bike, then more time to chase back, and you burn energy that you’d otherwise still have. Of course that slows you down. But can I summarise it neatly in seconds? No. Obviously we weren’t happy.”

While Küng drew a straight line from the incident to the final outcome, Reusser struck a more pragmatic tone. “In the heat of the moment it’s difficult to judge, to make the right decisions,” she said. “Afterwards you can sit down, analyse, find better solutions, get annoyed — bla bla bla. Maybe it was fine the way it was, maybe not. I don’t know.”

Switzerland ultimately claimed bronze, edged by both France and defending champions Australia in a finale decided by mere seconds. For a nation that had won the event in Wollongong in 2022 and Glasgow in 2023, it was a bitter result softened only slightly by another trip to the podium.

Reusser and Rüegg will have the chance to make amends in Saturday’s road race, but for Küng, the mixed relay remains a case of what might have been. “You don’t get many opportunities at a world title,” he said, “and we had the legs for it today. It’s a tough one to swallow.”