July 26, 2024
Groupama-FDJ’s time trial supremo Stefan Küng discusses how his Swiss upbringing and way of thinking has impacted his career, and reveals how cycling has opened up various pathways for him to pursue once he hangs up his racing wheels
There’s one thing that has been both a help and a hindrance to me during my career: my Swiss mentality. Us Swiss are modest, reserved, we don’t discuss our problems, and neither do we want to be in the spotlight – so when we are we bat it away. When I signed my first good contract, my mum pleaded with me not to buy an expensive car. “What would people think?” she said. We worry about others a lot, and, though Fabian Cancellara and Roger Federer were exceptions, we’d never say we are going to be the best in the world. If we did we’d be called cocky and arrogant. “How dare you,” people would say. Instead, we downgrade ourselves in sport and I think that handicaps us.
This mindset definitely hinders us in road racing because to win you’ve got to play the role of an arsehole: you need to flick other people, you’ve got to be sneaky and play dead sometimes, and have really big self-confidence. But that’s not how we’re raised – we’re taught to be nice to everyone, to say please and thank you, to never go behind anyone’s back, and to stay true to the rules and regulations. I’d like to not pull if the other guys won’t, be more prepared to go down together, but that’s harder for me with my Swiss mentality. I can do the physical training and the suffering side of it all quite easily, but the mind games and deploying smarter tactics is something I have to work hard at – it’s not easy. If I was more of an arsehole, I think I would have won more races. But I do also think that this mentality of striving for perfection, being a hard worker and calculating power and figures is one of the main reasons why my forte is time trialling and why Switzerland has had so many good time triallists.
I have to say: I’m really proud of being Swiss and I honestly wouldn’t want to live or have been brought up anywhere else. I’m fluent in German, French, English and can communicate in Italian and Spanish. I did my five months of mandatory military service in the sports division aged 19, waking up at 5.30am and carrying weapons and…