BMC aim to defend Kung's BinckBank Tour lead till the end

Having won the first WorldTour time trial of his career at the BinckBank Tour on stage 2, Stefan Kung is eying off the overall victory. BMC's Swiss national champion covered the 9km course four seconds faster than Maciej Bodnar (Bora-Hansgrohe) to move into the leader's green and black jersey.

Kung, 23, was second in the opening day Tour de France time trial and continued his recent form against the clock into the Voorburg stage for his second win of the 2017 season.

"It was a tricky time trial. It's a city parcours, so there were lots of corners, lots of signs and painting on the road and with the rain, it made it a big challenge," said Kung. "I think I was able to push all the way through, but with all the roundabouts it was hard to know exactly when to push. On a time trial like this, you are always on the line of how much risk you want to take because you want to go as fast as possible, but you don't want to go down, and I think I managed to do that well today."

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Despite fourth place overall at the Driedaagse De Panne-Koksijde his best overall result to date and that he was 79th at last year's race, Kung is aiming to finish the race on the top step. He will take a four second lead over Bodnar into stage 3 with a handful of potential rivals within 30 seconds of his time.

"The goal is to take this jersey all the way to finish. It is going to be hard as there are some difficult stages, a lot of difficult stages actually with the race heading to the Ardennes and then the finish in Geraardsbergen," he added. "But I am coming out of the Tour de France, and I am in good shape so, we will fight until the end."

In 2016, BMC lead the race at the start of the final day with Rohan Dennis only for the Australian to crash out with Greg van Avermaet the best-placed rider for the team in fourth place. The Olympic champion is also well placed on the GC for the team in 27th place at 28 seconds to his teammate.

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