Stefan Küng, who will be Thibaut Pinot's domestique on the Groupama-FDJ team for the Tour de France at the end of August, will return to Switzerland to compete in the UCI Road World Championships in Aigle, so during the crucial final week in the Alps the French He will not be by the side of the French riders.

Küng chose the World Championships because the elite men's individual time trial will be held on the same day as the final stage of the Tour in Paris.

"I can't miss the World Championships at home," Küng told Blick.ch (opens in new tab), saying the conflict with the Tour de France was a vexing conundrum. 'I don't understand why the race couldn't be postponed from Sunday to Wednesday.'

"It's always a dream to be on the Champs-Elysées three weeks from now on Sunday," he said. 'Even if the time trial for the World Championships was postponed to Wednesday. In any case, we have to leave a week before. That way I could have helped the team longer."

The UCI and race organizers announced last month that they would not change the schedule even if the modified Tour de France coincided with the race's opening day. Tom Dumoulin (Jumbo Visma) and teammates Primoz Roglic and Wout Van Aert have already decided to sit out the world championship time trial.

Kühn, who recently won another national title in the time trial, beating Sylvain Dillier by 54 seconds over the 30 km course, returned to racing earlier than many of the professionals competing in the World Tour and admitted that "I hadn't raced in four months, so I was more than usual I was much more nervous than usual because I hadn't raced in four months," he admitted.