This is why Stefan Küng was in tears in Poland: ‘My last international race ended with a broken femur’

The final stage of the Tour de France Femmes somewhat overshadowed the Tour de Pologne on Sunday, where the race was decided by a final time trial. Stefan Küng won the stage, and the victory brought the experienced Tudor rider to tears afterwards — for very understandable reasons. The celebrations were made complete when teammate Marco Brenner secured the overall classification.

Küng was in tears as he sat in the hot seat. “This is such a special victory. I was really emotional when I realised I was going to win. The last international race I started ended with a crash and a broken femur.”

“And during some of the difficult moments in my recovery, I honestly doubted whether I would ever make it back to the highest level,” he said, referring to the crash at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad that left him with a fractured femur and required surgery.

“To come back from really being at the bottom and win again is unbelievable. A huge thank you to the Team, and everybody, who supported me so much throughout this journey, and of course to my family for always having my back. I’m incredibly grateful to be back at this level, and to win the GC with Marco makes it a perfect day for the team,” Küng said through the team’s official channels.

Germany’s Brenner won the overall classification for Tudor, moving past Christian Scaroni (XDS Astana) and the Visma | Lease a Bike duo of Bart Lemmen and Louis Barré in the final time trial. “Finishing the Tour de Pologne in yellow and winning the race makes me incredibly happy. It will take a few days for me to fully realise what we’ve achieved. The team made it possible. I don’t think I’ve ever experienced a group with such a strong sense of togetherness,” the German said.

Visma | Lease a Bike ultimately ended the race in fourth and fifth place. “We had hoped to finish on the final podium with one of our riders. We started the time trial from an excellent position, but in the end, we had to settle for fourth and fifth,” sports director Robert Wagner said. Lemmen and Barré indeed finished fourth and fifth overall after losing their podium positions in the concluding time trial.

“It’s a shame we just missed out on the top three, but we can look back on a successful race. Our goal was to win a stage this week, and we managed to do that twice. On top of that, we also won the team classification. The guys took their opportunities over the past week, and they can be proud of that.”