'The evolution of cycling has been beneficial for me' – Stefan Küng buys into Tudor's ambitions to take on Tadej Pogačar in the cobbled Classics

Stefan Küng will race in Tudor Pro Cycling's black and red colours for the first time at this week's Challenge Mallorca, convinced that a change of team can help him take on Tadej Pogačar and fight for victory in the cobbled Classics.

Küng will test his early-season form in the Mallorca hills and then lead Tudor Pro Cycling in Thursday's 24km team time trial in the Trofeo Ses Salines.

The 32-year-old Swiss rider has been a WorldTour professional for 11 years but has only raced for the BMC and Groupama-FDJ teams in that time. He signed a three-year contract with Tudor after carefully considering his personal ambitions and how a team can help him finally win a Monument Classic.

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"By the end of the 2024 season, I knew it was going to be my last season in Groupama-FDJ. It wasn't a decision against the team, it was a decision to make a change, to find a new challenge," he said simply and honestly, during the recent Tudor training camp in Spain.

"I believe that when you have worked with people for many years, sometimes something new can make you better, you need an environment that challenges you. I'm still ready for change and I want to improve. I wanted the people around me to ask me difficult questions and I wanted to try something new.

"People say it's a logical fit because I'm Swiss and that's nice but the nationality of the team wasn't in my list of pros and cons when I decided which team to join. There are nine Swiss riders at Tudor but it's a very international team and an ambitious team. I really believe in this team, it's a young team, with a positive dynamic, where everyone wants to go to the top."

Küng is Tudor's time trial specialist and so plays a unique role in helping the team and equipment sponsors like BMC and clothing brand Sportful create the best equipment for races against the clock.

His know-how and input in the wind tunnel will help Michael Storer when he targets the general classification at the Giro d'Italia and other teammates throughout the season. He will also drive Tudor's ambitions in the Tour de France's opening team time trial in Barcelona.

Tudor might not win the stage but the process will serve to strengthen the team's mentality of constant improvement.

"It's a process," Küng explained.

"If we get into the top five in the Tour TTT, it'd be a great success, and then maybe the next time, we can aim for the top three and then grow from there. If you make a race a project, the result is never a failure, it's the process that helps you learn, that makes you move forward."

Leading the Tudor Classics squad and taking on Tadej Pogačar

Küng is the Classics leader that Tudor was missing in 2025. He will join forces with Matteo Trentin, fellow new signing Luca Mozzato, Marco Haller, Marius Mayrhofer others, allowing Julian Alaphilippe and Marc Hirschi to fully focus on the Ardennes Classics.

Tudor is a UCI ProTeam but has secured automatic invitations to all the WorldTour races in 2026 and plans to ride them all, including all three Grand Tours and all the major Classics. Küng will return to Omloop Het Nieuwsblad in late February and return in April after an altitude camp for a big block of cobbled racing.

Küng's more recent palmarès include six top ten results in cobbled Monument Classics in the last four years. He was third in the 2022 edition of Paris-Roubaix and has two other top-five results on the pavé of northern France.

He is convinced he can win a Monument, even in the era of Tadej Pogačar and Mathieu van der Poel.

"Looking at 2025, maybe result wise it was not my best Classics campaign, but if you look at Omloop, I was as close as I've ever been but I was caught under the flamme rouge," he said.

"For sure, the odds are against me, maybe nine times out of ten, Tadej and Mathieu are going to be better than me, but I believe that one day, that one time win can happen. You never know what is happening in the Classics, how the race will evolve, that's also what makes these races so special for sure.

"I know what it takes to be good in these races. You just never have to give up and always keep leaving. Then once you're up there fighting, it's possible to win. You only need that one shot and it can change your career. If the opportunity opens up, then you need to be ready to take it."

The presence of Pogačar and Van der Poel has changed the cobbled Classics, just like aerodynamics, performance and nutrition have made huge changes in the sport.

Küng believes the sport has evolved to his benefit.

"Just look at the average speed compared to ten years ago, we go two or three kilometres per hour faster," he said.

"That's due to the evolution of the materials, the improvement of all the riders, altitude training and nutrition. When I turned pro, carbs were your enemy. I remember riders complaining that there were too many carbs on offer at the hotel buffet. Nowadays it's completely other way around, you eat as much carbs as you can get.

"Improvements in nutrition have made the Classics more intense because the final starts 150km out and makes it all more intense. But that's what suits me well, when it's really hard racing, from far out, when it's more also about your durability or resilience."

Pogačar and Van der Poel can still land a knockout blow on the Oude Kwaremont or Carrefour de l'Arbre pavé but Küng is able to roll with the punches earlier in the race and so be a contender.

"Maybe I get tired a little bit less than the others or most of the others," he suggested.

"It's better for me if the race is hard from further out. That has played to my advantage in recent years. After the seventh or eighth hard acceleration I can follow quite a lot and perhaps then I can compete with them. The evolution of cycling has been beneficial for me."