"He is one of the riders that the team absolutely needs in the coming years" - Sepp Kuss the key to Vingegaard's quest to overcome Pogacar according to Robert Gesink

Although Tadej Pogacar was at his brilliant best at the 2024 Tour de France, there were a number of mitigating factors involved in Jonas Vingegaard's far from ideal race. Alongside his April horror crash in the Basque Country, the Dane's right-hand man Sepp Kuss was also notably absent.

According the recently retired Robert Gesink, who spent the entirety of his career at Team Visma | Lease a Bike under the team's various guises over the years, the American super-domestique could be a very important factor in Vingegaard's quest to reclaim the Maillot Jaune from Pogacar at the 2025 Tour de France next summer.

"Do you need a crowbar to put pressure on the competition? Then you can't escape Sepp," Gesink explains to Wieler Revue. "Under high pressure in a Grand Tour, you learn what kind of meat is in the tub. Sepp is great. Both in support and as a leader. Uphill he often made sure our team could make the difference."

Kuss has indeed played a pivotal role in Grand Tour victories of Vingegaard, Primoz Roglic and even took the Vuelta a Espana himself in 2023. Over the years, the American has earned the reputation of being widely regarded as the most important mountain domestique in the entire peloton.

"He is one of the riders the team absolutely needs in the coming years for the battle between Jonas and Tadej Pogacar. Our team had cooked up a system where everyone went through fire for each other. That's what it was all about and I don't see that directly reflected in other teams," concludes the 38-year-old Gesink. "Other teams have very good riders and do come close to what we performed with Visma, but I see many a team where people do not sacrifice themselves for the other. Sepp and Edo (Edoardo Affini ed.) are really examples of athletes who do."