"A good warm-up for what's ahead" - Sepp Kuss upbeat after limiting losses in stage 1 time trial at Vuelta a Espana
Cycling
The defending Vuelta a Espana champion, Sepp Kuss made a solid if unspectacular start to his 2024 campaign at the Spanish Grand Tour on Saturday afternoon in Lisbon, limiting losses in the individual time trial opener.
Clocking the 62nd fastest time on the stage, Kuss isn't known for his time trial specialties and therefore was never looking at any big gains on the day. Instead, for the American it was all about doing enough to keep the rest of the Red Jersey hopefuls in touching distance, something he managed to do relatively successfully despite losing a little bit of time to some of his rivals.
37 seconds behind former teammate Primoz Roglic, 36 behind Joao Almeida, 22 off Tao Geoghegan Hart and just 19 seconds down on Adam Yates, Kuss is still very much in the mix when looking at the times of the potential general classification challengers, by the time the race concludes in three weeks.
“A time trial as the opener of a Grand Tour is always painful”, Kuss said afterwards in conversation with Team Visma | Lease a Bike's official website. “This was a good warm-up for what's ahead in the coming weeks. I went full. I can be happy with the time trial I rode.”
He is 53 seconds behind the red jersey. 36 behind Roglic and 34 behind Almaeida. As the op said, Kuss has got to find something very special in the mountains to claw that time back. Kuss got lucky in last years Vuelta. This year he is promoted from domestique to team leader from the word go. Which is a whole different level of stress.
He absolutely doesn't need to find anything special. This is expected and Kuss will gain time in the mountains. The real question is about Roglic and if he can win with a lackluster team.
How can he possibly be happy with the time trial he rode? He has lost the GC already and can only win the GC now if he rides out of his skin and all the favourites lose masses of time from now on.
37 seconds or less is nothing in a grand tour ... Minutes are made up in the mountain stages, especially since the Vuelta has some very steep climbs ahead
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- If he's very lucky maybe he can podium a Tour one season, I certainly don't believe he can win it, evervappaxbipmv03-04-2025
- Yeah, as if fans would now have acquired a right to an MVPD every generation ;-)Jumpyjohn03-04-2025
- Yeah not this year anyway but worth keeping an eye on him (and some others) in future.Jumpyjohn03-04-2025
- poor kid, saddled with all that “next mvdp” crap. eeesh…OCexile03-04-2025
- I don't think so, maybe in a different GT, not in the Tour. Last year, to be 3rd, he would have to be better than Remco. And he wasn't, on any terrainvappaxbipmv03-04-2025
- Or sprinting, or against wind. I think by now they’ve optimised the tire tech and pressures to largely smooth out rider weight effects. BUT, I’m going to go through past podiums to see what weight distribution trends are to be spotted coz I’m curious now.Mistermaumau03-04-2025
- I also wasn’t too impressed by the final lead out, they’ve got to practice that, Wout had far too long to ride alone but then again it seemed as if the lead-outs had themselves run out of steam too early which is what makes me believe none of them could have won, Powfull looked totally fresh and in the end it was just a case of him being stronger than the others, not much you can do against that, just like you can’t outdo MVDP in the end when he’s in shape.Mistermaumau03-04-2025
- Exactly, a rider (or sprinter in athletics) can’t even tell themselves when it will happen until it does. Obviously if you have an idea that could happen, you should maybe envisage testing your theory with perhaps an small sharp attack well before race-end.Mistermaumau03-04-2025
- Yes but 20 minutes as a domestique isn’t 20 minutes as a leader, and you know as well as anybody that Pog winning is in no way a guarantee. Granted, neither Pog nor Remco nor Jinas nor Primoz or some more winning starts to seem far-fetched but a podium would certainly be targetable if he doesn’t have to worry about Jonas.Mistermaumau03-04-2025
- The final appeal he lost against his old team for « breaking » his contract.Mistermaumau03-04-2025