“I completely take my hat off to this team, including Jonas Vingegaard and Primoz Roglic" - Daniel Lloyd lauds praise on Jumbo-Visma's dominant Vuelta display

Going into the 2023 Vuelta a Espana, Jumbo-Visma were considered probably the strongest team at the race but just how much stronger they have proven to be, no one could have predicted.

With the race nearing it's conclusion and all the big mountains in the legs, Jumbo-Visma complete the podium with Sepp Kuss leading the race. Eurosport analyst and ex-pro Daniel Lloyd has been incredibly impressed by their strength despite the underlying threat of a mutiny that has followed the team over the last week.

“If Sepp has a bad day on Saturday I don’t think they‘ll be waiting around for him, because this team has got to win the Vuelta a Espana,” he explained on Eurosport's The Breakaway post-stage 18. “They’d be a laughing stock and it would be the worst thing possible if they didn’t win this race at this point. So, it comes down to Sepp’s legs this Saturday, but he’ll have the confidence that if his legs feel good they’re not going to stick a knife in his back at the last minute."

After successive days where his teammates were the only riders attacking Kuss, stage 18 saw a noticeable change in tact from the Jumbo-Visma trio. “I completely take my hat off to this team, including Jonas Vingegaard and Primoz Roglic," Lloyd analyses. “They were clearly wanting to ride the front and wanting to show the world and show us that they’re behind Sepp Kuss."

“I said they should be riding for him at this point and they’ve done that," concludes the Eurosport pundit who had been vocally critical of the attacks on Kuss by Roglic and Vingegaard over past stages. "Sepp is obviously going to be incredibly happy that he’s now got the loyalty of the two team-mates that he’s been so loyal to in that team. We can now say they stuck by the leader of that race, and of their team."