Some 200 metres after the finish in the Clásica Jaén Paraiso Interior, Sepp Kuss (Visma-Lease A Bike) ground to a halt and, one recovery drink quickly downed, the 2023 Vuelta a España champion exchanged initial post-race impressions with teammate and fellow breakaway Jan Tratnik, who was third behind solo winner Oier Lazkano (Movistar).
“Two podiums in three days, not bad,” Kuss pointed out to Tratnik, already second in the Vuelta Ciclista a Murcia on Saturday, with a mud-stained grin. But Kuss’s own performance on Monday, on the backroads and gravel pathways of eastern Jaén was also more than remarkable in its own way, too.
Sixth at the finish, Kuss had always raced well off-road, given he was a US MTB collegiate national champion prior to taking up road racing full time.
His goals are much further down the line in 2024 and few were expecting the American to be shining so strongly midway through February, and on terrain that feels a long way from the usual mountain climbs where Kuss usually shines the brightest.
In some ways Kuss had no choice. Given that after teammate and standout favourite Wout van Aert punctured with some 60 kilometres to go and could not regain contact, Kuss and Tratnik, the last men standing from Visma in the front group, found themselves making the running for their team.
In an impressive two-hander, Kuss all but pulled the chase group to bits on the climbs and off-road segments while Tratnik kept back what strength he could for a possible small group sprint.
Ultimately, Lazkano finally proved too resilient to catch, even though his advantage was well below a minute at the finish, but as Kuss said afterwards, both he and Tratnik could be satisfied with how close they ran the Spaniard.
“It was too bad to lose Wout in the beginning with a flat tyre, but we still had Jan and I up there and it was very close,” Kuss told Cyclingnews. “I think either way it was going to be really hard to bring the break back. It was a very strong group and in such a short race, it was tough to make a difference because when the peloton’s breaking all the time, it’s hard to get organised.
“But other teams were controlling, so I tried to give everything I could and get Jan as close as possible and catch the last of the break. But he [Lazkano] was super strong and I was hurting myself to try and keep him [Tratnik] up there.”
After an initial spell of waiting to see if Van Aert could get back in contact, which proved impossible, “me and…
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