Although being 4,770 metres long, the opening time trial on the Tour de Suisse, this Sunday, was considered as stage 1 and not as a prologue. Regardless, Sam Watson and Stefan Küng gave their all in Vaduz, capital of Liechtenstein, and took sixth and eighth places respectively on the day. Although riding his new time trial bike, the Swiss rider, just returning from illness, was unable to challenge Yves Lampaert for victory. Lenny Martinez limited his losses, nineteen seconds behind the winner.
A rectangle. This was pretty much what the course looked like on Sunday, on the Tour de Suisse, for the first day of racing… in Liechtenstein. A little less than five kilometres had to be covered in the streets of Vaduz, without any hills. “There were some fast sections, but also low-speed and quite technical turns, which made for a fairly punchy course,” summarized Anthony Bouillod. Due to an uncertain weather forecast at the end of the afternoon, Stefan Küng was expected on the start ramp at 2:22 p.m, with his brand-new time trial bike, the Wilier Supersonica SLR. Unfortunately, this was not enough to set the best time. On the line, the Swiss rider placed third provisionally, four seconds behind Joao Almeida, then in the lead. “I was really looking forward to racing with the new bike,” Stefan said. “My preparation was, however, disrupted by bronchitis which knocked me out until the beginning of the week. I paid for it a little today, I felt that the legs were not there as usual. I would have liked to win for the first outing, but even with the best bike, you need legs. It happens, and you can’t change anything. I’m already looking forward to racing with it next time.”
“I think we will hear about the bike very soon”, Anthony Bouillod
After some other favourites joined the finish, Stefan Küng slipped down to seventh place in the standings. “Stefan likes slightly longer courses, and these very punchy efforts are not what suit him the most”, added the team coach, Anthony Bouillod. “Today he didn’t have his best day, but I think that doesn’t call into question his preparation for his future goals. We have to stay focused and move on quickly. We are sure, and so is he, that the bike is very high-performance. Beyond the fact that it is gorgeous, we know what it is worth because of all the work that went into it. Now the stars just have to align and I think we’ll hear about it very soon.” Second rider to take the start, Lenny Martinez set a solid time, just nineteen seconds behind Yves Lampaert, new leader and eventual winner of the race against the clock. “We know that Lenny has the ability to do very good time trials, and even if the course did not really suit his qualities, he limited his losses very well for the GC compared to the other favorites”, added Anthony. “It promises a good week where he should fight both on the stages and overall.”
“I couldn’t have done much more,” Sam Watson
At around 3:34 p.m., while the top of the ranking seemed almost settled, Sam Watson took off and made a strong impression. After exactly five minutes and fourteen seconds, he took sixth place in the time trial, ahead of his Swiss teammate. “I’m starting to like the prologues,” he smiled. “Still, you never feel good, you’re suffering for five minutes, but I think I did a good time. I’m happy, I couldn’t have done much more. After such a short time trial, you always think of little things that you could have done differently, but at the end of the day, I went full gas.” “Sam did a very good time trial, ahead of Stefan, but it’s not a surprise either because he has already placed third at the Tour de la Provence and the Boucles de la Mayenne in the same kind of events,” recalled Anthony. “We know that this is the kind of course that suits him very well, and he has only confirmed his previous results.” Lampaert awarded himself the stage victory and the first yellow jersey, which could change shoulders in Regensdorf on Monday in a bumpy finale. “Tomorrow, it will be a bit of a test with the climbs at the end, so I want to try and give it a go,” said Sam. “I’m looking forward to racing this week in Switzerland, and I’m going to take this race as preparation for the Tour and the Olympic Games,” concluded Stefan.
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