From sidekick to champion. Sepp Kuss dominated the Vuelta, his team made history

78. the Vuelta is history. The fight for the overall championship brought a great story and also the completion of a unique golden hat-trick. The traditional superdomestique of the favourites, Sepp Kuss, became the champion of the famous Spanish race himself.

Published

1 year ago

18. 9. 2023

Michal Jelínek

Kuss held the maillot rojo for the race leader from stage eight. He entered the final week after the second day off on Tuesday with a lead of one minute and 37 seconds over teammate Roglic. Vingegaard, also from the strong Dutch group, was another seven seconds back in third.

Meanwhile, the Slovenian Giro d’Italia winner and Danish Tour de France ruler were originally supposed to be higher than the 29-year-old American. It’s not only in the mountains that he often helps them, and such a division of roles was also intended for the 2023 Vuelta.

Jonas Vingegaard pulled his deficit to the front on stage 16. In fact, he escaped everyone on the final climb to the finish in Bejes and thanks to his win, he moved into second place in the overall standings with a half-minute gap on the leading rider.

A day later, Primož Roglič shone when he was the fastest on the Alto de l’Angliru. After winning the stage laurel, he was 68 seconds behind Kuss, with Vingegaard just eight seconds behind.

Thursday, September 14, saw the last mountain test this year’s Vuelta a España had to offer. This time it was another of the favourites who won, but lost his chance to defend his title in the Pyrenees – Remco Evenepoel of Soudal Quick-Step.

Kuss made an important step towards retaining the red jersey, finishing tenth and holding a 17-second advantage over Vinegagaard before the flatter end of the race. And so it remained until the end.

Triumphs by Albert Dainese in 19th, Wout Poels in 20th and Kaden Groves in 21st no longer took the win of a lifetime for Sepp Kuss. He is the second U.S. rider to enjoy Vuelta domination after Sunday’s finish in Madrid. Ten years ago, his compatriot Chris Horner was celebrating.

“It will change my life for sure, but I will look back on this experience with a lot of fond memories, I think it will take a long time to absorb it,” Kuss told Eurosport.

The Jumbo-Visma team has confirmed that it is the best in the current season. No stable has ever before dominated all three weeks of road cycling action in one calendar year. General manager Richard Plugge’s squad did it with Roglic in Italy, Vingegaard in France and Kuss in Spain.

The king of the points competition was the aforementioned Australian Groves of Alpecin-Deceuninck with 315 points. Belgian Evenepoel topped all the other climbers with 135 points to make up for his unsuccessful attempt to win the main classification. The best Under-25 rider is UAE Team Emirates’ Juan Ayuso, fourth overall.

Two Czechs were also part of the peloton. Evenepoel’s sidekick Jan Hirt finished 59th, while debutant Michal Schlegel of Caja Rural – Seguros RGA finished 114th. The next edition will take place from 17 August to 8 September and will start in the Portuguese capital Lisbon.