"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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