Sepp Kuss is poised to become the USA’s second-ever winner of the Vuelta a España on Sunday and clinch a career-defining triumph after defending his lead on the last GC stage of the race through the sierras of Madrid.
In a spontaneous show of team unity, the 29-year-old from Colorado crossed stage 20’s finish line arm in arm with Jonas Vingegaard and Primož Roglič, set to finish second and third overall, respectively.
In the process, Jumbo-Visma will make history as the first-ever team to win all three Grand Tours in a single season. They are also the first to take a clean sweep of a Grand Tour’s top-three podium positions since Spanish squad KAS in the 1966 Vuelta a España. In addition, they have taken, so far, five stages out of a possible 20, by far their biggest haul from any Grand Tour this year.
The dream ending for Kuss sees the top climbing domestique claim his biggest victory of his career and his first overall stage race win since the Tour of Utah back in 2018. It also comes after mid-way through the third week, the team abruptly switched a controversial policy to allow the top three Jumbo-Visma riders fight it out for the overall victory to defending Kuss’ overall margin.
“It’s very difficult to put this into words, I’m very happy and it was a great way to finish it all off at the end. I’ve almost, almost won, although there’s still tomorrow to come,” Kuss told reporters afterwards.
Kuss was the first to admit that he came into the Vuelta with minimal expectations, but as his third Grand Tour of the 2023 season unfolded, his chances improved radically.
Getting in the break and taking an impressive lone stage win at Javalambre in the first week catapulted the American into GC contention. He then claimed red two days later on the ultra-steep slopes of Xorret de Cati and subsequently limited the gaps in perhaps the most difficult stage for the US rider, the medium-length time trial at Valladolid.
On the Tourmalet stage, the dramatic disintegration of Remco Evenepoel’s (Soudal-QuickStep) GC bid was followed by a devastating demonstration of collective power by Jumbo-Visma, allowing the team to secure the top three positions overall.
A decision to allow each of the top three to fight it out for the GC saw Kuss lead reduced to eight seconds at one point. But a subsequent change of team strategy, combined with Kuss own strength in the final mountain stages, proved the right combination for him to maintain the lead as far as the…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at CyclingNews RSS Feed…