'It doesn't feel like a comeback anymore' - Küng up to speed again after career-threatening femur break

On the face of it, a stage win at the Tour de Pologne last month should have been merely a footnote in the career of Stefan Küng, but it had a special resonance for the Swiss rider after the most turbulent months of his cycling life.

“I rate it really, really highly because I didn’t know if I was ever going to come back to the same level,” Küng told Domestique on the Vuelta a España, where he will target further success in the stage 18 time trial to Jerez de la Frontera.

Küng joined Tudor last winter in the belief that the move would bring him closer to success on the cobbles, but the homecoming risked becoming a farewell when he crashed heavily at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, breaking his left femur.

That precise injury has severely compromised and even ended the careers of plenty before him, and Küng was warned that it could take years to get back to his previous condition. He defied expectations by returning to competition at the Swiss Championships in late June, and the recovery continued apace in Poland, when he hurtled to victory in the final time trial in Wieliczka.

“That was a really special one, because you don’t really know what will happen when you have a major injury to your legs,” said Küng. “When it happened, I reached out to a few guys who had broken their femurs, and some of them told me it took them two years to get back to the level. That leaves you doubting and not knowing how it’s going to turn out for yourself.”

The guiding principle for Küng’s rehabilitation was to forget the calendar. After surgery, the 32-year-old didn’t set himself any specific target for a return date. Recovering well was prioritised over recovering quickly. The objective, he explained, was simply to start feeling like a bike rider again and take it from there. 

“The aim was to get the rehab done as well as possible, and we were able to do that because my goal was never to get back at a certain moment in time or for a certain race, it was just to get back to my level,” Küng said. “I managed to do that, and I was so happy to win in Poland because it was confirmation that I was back at my best level.”

Success in Poland rubberstamped Küng’s ticket to the Vuelta, the race where he scored the lone Grand Tour stage win of his career back in 2024, when he landed the final time trial in Madrid. Although Küng was disappointed with his outing in the opening night time trial in Monaco – “It was under par and that was frustrating,” he said of his 12th place finish – the race presents another opportunity on Thursday’s time trial to Jerez de la Frontera. 

The 32.1km test is flat and without undue technical difficulties. Ideally suited to a rouleur of Küng’s gifts, in other words.

“It’s a big goal of mine,” Küng said, though the time trial also doubles as a dress rehearsal for the World Championships in Montreal a week on Sunday. Indeed, the entire Vuelta has doubled as an extended training block for Küng ahead of the Worlds, where he will line up in the individual time trial, the mixed relay and the road race. Due to the quick turnaround, he will miss the European Championships in Slovenia.

“I think the Vuelta is the best possible preparation for myself for the Worlds and also for next year,” he said. “That was also one of the reasons for me to do the Vuelta, just get a big block in as I haven’t raced so much this year.”

The long stint of rehab means that Küng hasn’t had much time to familiarise himself with his 2026 time trial set up, though he was quickly up to speed in Poland.

“For sure it has been different, and long TTs are a little bit of an unknown for me at the moment,” Küng said. “I only started training on the TT bike in June and there are so many other things you also have to focus on, but I hope to be competitive here in the Vuelta and for sure at the Worlds.”

In any case, the work done in the final weeks of the current campaign will serve as a foundation for 2027. Barely six months removed from the crash that could have ended his career, Küng believed that he had already moved past it with his triumph in Poland.

“Now it doesn’t feel like a comeback anymore, you know, it just feels like I’m back into it,” he said. “It’s not really bothering me anymore. Yes, I still feel it and yes, it’s still not 100% at the same level, but I also don’t think about it when I wake up in the morning or when I stand at the team presentation. So, yeah, it feels like it’s far away, even though it’s only six months ago, really.”