Return to racing for the first time since the Criterium du Dauphine, Sepp Kuss was supposed to be finding his form ahead of the quickly approaching defence of his Vuelta a Espana defence at the 2024 Vuelta a Burgos. Two stages down though, and it's two crashes for the American.
“Sepp Kuss and Cian Uijtdebroeks were there. That is of course far from ideal”, says team manager Marc Reef afterwards in conversation with Team Visma | Lease a Bike's official website. “Fortunately, both were able to quickly return to the thinned out peloton with the help of Julien Vermote and Edoardo Affini.”
Whilst Kuss and Uijtdebroeks escaped the worst effects of the crash which saw Lidl-Trek leader Tao Geoghegan Hart among others forced to abandon, Team Visma | Lease a Bike's Ben Tulett had earlier been forced into his own abandon after a separate crash incident, dislocating his shoulder.
“We are of course satisfied with that," Reef says of the fact that Kuss was able to finish on the same time as stage winner Caleb Ewan. "But you still have a bad feeling about this day. Sepp falls for the second time in this round and that is far from ideal. In addition, we lose Ben Tulett in a crash.”
“I think many teams will have to assess the damage after today’s big crash. There is little time to recover,” the team manager concludes. “I expect Sepp and Cian to be less damaged. If they feel good tomorrow, we will have to put them in a good position for the final climb. Then we can hopefully fight for a good result.”
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