Stefan Küng victorious in European Championships individual time trial

The Swiss rider put in a very strong performance on the rolling roads of Brittany

(Image credit: Getty Images)

Stefan Küng took his first European individual time trial title in a very impressive fashion, beating Frenchman Rémi Cavagna by 17 seconds.

The Swiss national time trial champion went hard from the start, picking off his minute man, Edoardo Affini (Italy) at around the half-way point of the rolling 26.5km course in Plouay, France.

>>> Tour de France 2020 route: Eight mountain finishes and uphill time trial to decide 107th edition

Only Cavagna and World Hour Record holder, Victor Campenaerts (Belgium), were able to finish inside a minute of Küng's time.

The 26-year-old will be supporting Thibaut Pinot at the upcoming Tour de France where he will play a vital role on the flatter stages and leading into climbs. We will only see his new jersey once at this year's Tour, on the stage 20 time trial.

Alex Dowsett (Great Britain) managed to go one better than last year in this event, taking fourth place, but he finished just over a minute down on the winner, Küng.

Defending champion in this event, Remco Evenepoel (Belgium) was unable to defend his title following injuries sustained in a crash at Il Lombardia; injuries that will keep him out for the rest of the season.

The elite men's time trial rounded a stacked day of racing against the clock in this year's Euros, with Anna van der Breggen (Netherlands) among the winners as she took victory in the elite women's competition earlier this afternoon, beating compatriot Ellen Van Dijk to the win.

Results

European Championships 2020, elite men's individual time trial: Plouay to Plouay (26.5km)

1. Stefan Küng (Sui), in 30-18-11

2. Rémi Cavagna (Fra), at 17.11s

3. Victor Campenaerts (Bel), at 21.30s

4. Alex Dowsett (GBr), at 1-03.52

5. Edoardo Affini (Ita), at 1-15.11

6. Jan Tratnik (Slo), at 1-26.11

7. Justin Wolf (Ger), at 1-30.12

8. Ryan Mullen (Irl), at 1-41.35

9. Jan Barta (Cze), at 1-43.77

10. Anthony Roux (Fra), at 2-03.59

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Tim Bonville-Ginn

Hi, I'm one of Cycling Weekly's content writers for the web team responsible for writing stories on racing, tech, updating evergreen pages as well as the weekly email newsletter. Proud Yorkshireman from the UK's answer to Flanders, Calderdale, go check out the cobbled climbs!


I started watching cycling back in 2010, before all the hype around London 2012 and Bradley Wiggins at the Tour de France. In fact, it was Alberto Contador and Andy Schleck's battle in the fog up the Tourmalet on stage 17 of the Tour de France.


It took me a few more years to get into the journalism side of things, but I had a good idea I wanted to get into cycling journalism by the end of year nine at school and started doing voluntary work soon after. This got me a chance to go to the London Six Days, Tour de Yorkshire and the Tour of Britain to name a few before eventually joining Eurosport's online team while I was at uni, where I studied journalism. Eurosport gave me the opportunity to work at the world championships in Harrogate back in the awful weather.


After various bar jobs, I managed to get my way into Cycling Weekly in late February of 2020 where I mostly write about racing and everything around that as it's what I specialise in but don't be surprised to see my name on other news stories.


When not writing stories for the site, I don't really switch off my cycling side as I watch every race that is televised as well as being a rider myself and a regular user of the game Pro Cycling Manager. Maybe too regular.


My bike is a well used Specialized Tarmac SL4 when out on my local roads back in West Yorkshire as well as in northern Hampshire with the hills and mountains being my preferred terrain.