"I feel Kuss deserves a bit more respect" - Geraint Thomas weighs in on Jumbo-Visma's Vuelta leadership debate

Sepp Kuss leads the Vuelta a Espana heading into stage 18 but his victory is by no means assured and the strange thing is, the only real challenge is coming from his two teammates. Geraint Thomas was long viewed as a super domestique in his own right before winning the Tour de France, as such he empathises with Kuss.

"Initially I think, if it's obvious that the leader from the start is stronger then he should have the opportunity to race for the win. But looking at this race, looking at yesterday (stage 17 e.d.) I don't think there's that much difference," the INEOS Grenadiers rider and runner-up at the Giro d'Italia earlier this year to Roglic told Eurosport. "The fact that Kuss only got distanced 1km from the top of such a hard time and at the end of such a hard race, I feel that's slightly different to having a big gap between the leaders and the domestique."

"There shouldn't be any gifts in a Grand Tour win. I think it's one thing gifting a stage win or whatever, but I don't think just because someone has worked for you for years, you let them win," the Welshman continues. "But that's not the case anyway, he (Kuss e.d.) is good enough to be in the position he's in and they played that card, that's the funny thing about it. He rode super hard that day (stage 6) to get a gap and maintain a gap. Now they're kind of changing their minds."

As mentioned, for a long time, Thomas was in a similar supporting role for Chris Froome as Kuss has had for Roglic and Jonas Vingegaard. "I've experienced similar in the past, in a smaller race when you go in with double leadership and suddenly, half way through they're like; 'Actually, we'd like the other guy to win,'" Thomas recalls. "So I feel for Kuss, I feel he deserves a bit more respect. Not necessarily from the riders but more from the team."

Thomas himself has had a disappointing, crash-marred Vuelta a Espana, but who does he think will win out of the Jumbo-Visma trio? "Umm... Vingegaard maybe," he ponders. "There's a lot of pressure in that team now, a lot of outside pressure. I'd love to see Sepp win and I think most of the peloton would as well."