Blow for Jonas Vingegaard! Sepp Kuss out of Visma's 2024 Tour de France team due to covid
CyclingTuesday, 25 June 2024 at 11:13
In a season filled with bad luck for Team Visma | Lease a Bike, things had started to look up when an all star lineup was announced for the 2024 Tour de France. Sadly, illness has struck again with Vuelta a Espana champion Sepp Kuss forced to drop out of the team.
Kuss, widely regarded as the best super domestique in the entirety of the peloton has been a key figure in Jonas Vingegaard's back to back Maillot Jaune wins at the last two editions of the Tour de France and with the Dane entering this year's Grand Boucle untested having not raced since crashing out of the Itzulia Basque Country, Kuss' absence is a blow Vingegaard could easily have done without.
"This is of course very hard for Sepp in the first place. His contribution is always very important in the team, but then of course he has to be completely fit," analyses Team Visma | Lease a Bike sports director Merijn Zeeman to the team's official website of the difficult decision. "Unfortunately, we had to conclude together today that this is insufficiently the case, after Covid. He now needs to recover properly and will therefore not start. Fortunately, we have a good replacement ready with Bart Lemmen."
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As mentioned there, second year pro and former air force officer Bart Lemmen will get himself a Tour de France debut as a result of Kuss' misfortune. A career defining moment for the 28-year-old Dutchman. "Despite only being a professional for 1.5 years, Bart is already proving to be a very reliable and strong rider," Zeeman says, full of praise for Lemmen. "He learns quickly and proved it this year with several good classifications. He is a good climber, and he willingly sacrifices himself for his leader Jonas Vingegaard. I have a lot of confidence in Bart."
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- The team is right. If he is unable to see clearly he is a danger to not only himself but the entire pelaton. It sucks for him no doubt but one rider finishing a race isn't more important than the safety of othersHoopoeChai29-05-2025
- The only thing I know about Ayuso is that he wobbles in big races all the time. He's young though and not everyone develops at the rate of Tadej. On UAE he will probably be a super domestique only.awp29-05-2025
- If the mistake is made by many, that doesn't mean it's not a mistake. Obviously, pure objectivity doesn't exist, but if you're a communicator you should at least try instead falling into fanatic sentimentality.
maria2024202429-05-2025 - exactly!maria2024202429-05-2025
- This lad needs a new team and a new enviroment. You can only surmise from what you read online. He comes over as hard work. He is ambitious and often shows flashes of brilliance. At the present time though - injuries aside, he doesn't seem capable of holding on to GC winning form in the hands of UAE.Cyclingsbestfan29-05-2025
- A pat on the back would be easier than a cake mid race. While I am not a huge Ayuso fan I do have some empathy for the crushing disappointment the guy must be feeling. Has an amazing spring. Builds towards main goal of season. Performs well but is eclipsed by younger team mate. Suffers a massive crack. Trys to soldier on. Ends up abandoning race with a whimpermobk29-05-2025
- With the amazing riders Visma has, you would not think they would need to demean their rivals to boost their morale, but they often do it. It leaves a sour taste.Hill3329-05-2025
- Totally agree. He did way better than could realistically be imagined, problem was, Pog also more or less. In the end the difference isn’t insurmountable and had there been no Pog, EVERYONE normal would have been full of admiration that he’d won it after his spring. Don’t know many riders to come back from so low to so high so fast.Mistermaumau29-05-2025
- I was counting on the Rogliduritis bacteria but this definitely beats it ;-)Mistermaumau29-05-2025
- Commentator, not journalist and since when don’t sports commentators have the right to be fans or show preference for their country’s participants? Even journalists (and supposedly unbiased newspapers) tend to focus on their countries, why else does someone like Raducanu get more articles in the anglo press than Sinner and Djoko combined?Mistermaumau29-05-2025
Actually this could be good for Visma and Matteo. Now Matteo can slot in where Sepp would have been as last man in the mountains. If Matteo is up to it, Matteo can be within seconds or minutes of Jonas. If Jonas falters then Visma's plan B (Matteo) is ready.
Plays well to American audiences too for commercial and media purposes.
Erm, Sepp is also an American...
Yeah but he’s less Slovenian ;-)
No seriously, Sepp is less exploitable American media-wise so they’ll be happy for a new sweetie, it’s like choosing between how to market and create buzz with either David Byrne or that woman everyone is now using to discuss every single current topic because she’s so mainstream as to be useable for anything.
Dang, what about those effective vaccines for Covid? Oh yes it would have been worse.
Not good, Sepp has been sick most of his season this far, really bad luck. Maybe he can help Jonas win the Vuelta this year.
Maybe he can repeat at the Vuelta, in this case.
Hope so. That would be a good way to end an undercooked season.
Kuss was nowhere near his 23‘ form this year anyway! This is prolly an improvement!
Thank you, for repeating pretty much exactly what I said
Damn! we vibing or what!! 🙌🏽 🤜🏼🤛🏼
Based on past years, a huge blow. However, Kuss has been so bad this year that Lemmen is probably an improvement