Swiss time trial champion Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ) powered to his third victory at the prestigious Chrono des Nations race against the clock, narrowly beating Jay Vine (UAE Emirates) in Les Herbiers by just four seconds with a time of 51:53 and average speed of 52.5kph.
Küng was the last rider to set off on the 45.4km and built most of his lead between the two intermediate checkpoints after crossing the first one second down on Vine and three off the pace of fellow UAE rider Mikkel Bjerg. By the second check, Küng was flying and now seven seconds of Vine in first, with Bjerg fading quickly to 17 seconds off the lead.
Vine narrowly took the lead from Johan Price-Pejtersen (Bahrain-Victorious) by just one second after a great performance from the under-23 ITT world champion, however, under a minute later Küng rounded the final corner with his time still in the green to take the victory.
This is Küng's third win of the season, adding to his successes from the Vuelta a España and his home national championships in Switzerland.
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