"I never want to be leader in a Grand Tour again!" - Visma's All-In documentary sheds new light on Vuelta infighting between Kuss, Vingegaard & Roglic
CyclingThursday, 14 March 2024 at 15:59
Jumbo-Visma completed their historic Grand Tour hat-trick at the 2023 Vuelta a Espana as Sepp Kuss secured the biggest win of his career. This wasn't without controversy however.
Prior to the race, Primoz Roglic was the expected leader of the team although a late addition of Jonas Vingegaard to the lineup meant Visma had a two-pronged attack in the fight for the Red Jersey. When Kuss worked his way into the breakaway on stage 6 though, taking the win and moving into the overall lead of the race two stages later, the team was thrown into chaos as three riders all considered themselves the leader. In the new, Amazon Prime documentary about Jumbo-Visma's 2023, dropping on March 16th, a whole new light is shone on the situation.
"I have been honest. I said I wanted to win. And that meant I would attack," says Jonas Vingegaard in an emergency team meeting after Remco Evenepoel's implosion on the Tourmalet meant the three Visma riders had the podium for themselves.
With Evenepoel gone from the GC fight and the likes of Juan Ayuso and Enric Mas some distance away, Kuss suddenly found himself only being attacked by his teammates. The two men he had selflessly sacrificed for so many times over the years. "I was confused. This was rivalry and politics going over my head," Kuss recalls in the documentary, noting how Mikel Landa even offered to be a domestique for him if Roglic and Vingegaard continued to attack. "I'm very grateful to Mikel. He can drink beer at my expense for the rest of his life."
Even in the Visma team car things were getting tense. "Is this what we agreed?" sports director Grischa Niermann questions before finally a cease-fire is demanded and it's agreed that the American will lead the team in the final stages. "We are not attacking each other anymore," Merijn Zeeman says to bring the matter to a conclusion.
Whilst victory did eventually go to Kuss and he took his first Grand Tour win of his career, there were mixed emotions for him afterwards. "Never again in my life," he says frustratedly. "I never want to be leader in a Grand Tour again!"
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- Your position would hold water were it not for the completely anomalous bidon on a very short TT stage. No one else carried water, there was no rational reason to carry water, and the so-called "conspiracy theory" actually makes sense.verve82513-06-2025
- So true. His tally from ONLY half a season would be a dream career for many cyclists. Eight wins - two of them monuments and multiple podiums as well. It's funny how the cycling media needs a story so bad that they jump on any slightest signs of "weakness" from Pogi, Jonas, or Remco. Example after 2023 some commentators were basically writing Pogi off for the next TdF and saying the only reason he was attempting the Giro Tour double was so he could win a "consolation" GTmobk12-06-2025
- Too much pressure. This poor, super-talented boy can't "just" be Top 5 in a TT stage without the "experts" starting to question him. What he won in the spring races would be the dream of any pro-cyclist to consider his ENTIRE career successful... Let him alone.
maria2024202412-06-2025 - I can imagine this take, simply because it's so common in other forms of racing, like auto racing outside F1. The water bottle is the one that made no sense to me. The rest could be what UAE said, but a water bottle on a 20km TT? Huh.RidesHills12-06-2025
- For me shorter cranks (165) feel better on the knees. Maybe it's a placebo effect, but it feels realmobk12-06-2025
- exactly. Or Simply, he didn't have a good day.maria2024202412-06-2025
- I prefer Occam's Razor. He said he didn't train in TT much due to the spring campaign. It's a good and simple explanation. He's Tadej, why should he resort to this sort of scheme?
KerisVroom12-06-2025 - Enric Mas?? and Bardetpopkip12-06-2025
- Flat-earthers have come to cycling: everyone tries to fabricate the most intricate plot/conspiracy to appear intelligent.maria2024202412-06-2025
- The peloton needs to move past LA Doper and its hordes. Why is UCI not doing enough to sanction the whole lot of LA Doper hordes from even indirectly in the sports that they tarnished?KerisVroom12-06-2025
Sepp was the common element in all Jumbo Visma’s tour victories. He was the soul of the team - the true definition of their slogan, Winnen”. Sepp is the “secret sauce” of great teamwork, personal warmth and the balance between killer instinct and love of team and teammates. He certainly deserved the win (and earned it) at the Vuelta. Primoz never got it and, as much as I respect his cycling greatness, was not a great teammate. He did imbue in the team a toughness in training, shared by Sepp, which ignited their rise to greatness but never really got with the program when he wasn’t in the spotlight on the top step.
You are right about much of this but as I said about documentaries not reflecting the whole story, I would say that saying Roglic didn’t respect the team if he wasn’t in the spotlight doesn’t represent or respect who he is, he certainly wasn’t one to demand all attention should be on him. He was given a role of leader and did that job as he could which was made more difficult by confusion created by others. Every actor in this situation had his part of responsibility, problem and a price to pay. There was no win-win-win possibility.
In the end it is only natural he left. Someone of his capabilities and success cannot stop a career with the TdF palmares he had, it is obvious he would regret not trying again the rest of his life. At J-V with JV his only opportunity would have been if JV would abandon, I don’t think anyone in his shoes would have stayed for the case that happened.
Haven’t seen this years documentary.
That's only because Roglic isn't very outgoing. He certainly wanted all the attention as a leader in terms of team focus.
*Also, he's never winning anything but possibly another Vuelta. He's not good enough to win without a superteam(nothing wrong with that) which is similar to Geraint Thomas. Most people need great teams to win, and he's one of those riders.
Can’t put GT on his level, sorry.
Listen, he was chosen and paid to be leader and you’re criticising him for doing his job?
JV was chosen as his future replacement (Sepp could have asked if interested) but developed faster than expected (and was thrown into the deep end when PR crashed) which precipitated the changes.
He worked damn hard as a leader so had every right to be demanding of assistants and his JOB was to get results from the basis laid by the team. Looking at his palmares he’s been one of the most successful team leaders for quite a while. He’s not a classics rider but few have his Stage race palmares even though he’s been unlucky having to abandon some of the most important ones due to being brought down by others. Obviously missing a TdF is a stain on his record even though he narrowly missed it but in compensation he has also won EC, WC and Olympics.
Now, you can have your opinion of him but then apply your argument to someone else, Tadej. No EC, no WC, no Olympics, no GT other than TdF, never did 2 GTs in a year, we’ll see how he resists now but if you ask me, it’s interesting that he’s chosen THIS year to try that.
But crucially, yes he may be a « nicer, more outwardly, whatever » guy but, is he any different to Roglic as a leader? All the attention is on him, no teammates ever take the initiative to go past, he’s never playing domestique to anyone like MvdP does for JP or WVA does for everyone or Sepp does for who he’s told, the undisputed one and only number one leader so why does Roglic get under your skin other than you think SK got a bad deal?
By the way, do you think SK understands Slovenian?
The confusion was Sebb was the leader and had been instrumental in all Primoz’s GT wins. You don’t attack the leader on your own team. I love Primoz but on the ‘23 Vuelta he was in the wrong. The team knew it from Owner to swaniers. The peloton was with Sebb 100. Primoz was wrong this time.
There was no confusion initially, Sepp was in front but as a lieutenant for either of the two official leaders, PR and JV.
The day before Angliru there was a discussion, PR as leader said he wanted to go for the win so would attack and it was accepted, he showed he was stronger, Sepp was suffering and limited the damage through Landa (just adding that to show and explain that if the strongest is supposed to be allowed to win, it was not sure Sepp would), JV also showed his strength (and despite it always being claimed they win through team help (fair enough) when it comes to the showdown, they were still stronger without the team than Sepp with team help (not saying that to denigrate his performance).
It was only the next day that management reworked their strategy, they are completely to blame, stop putting this on Roglic, he respected his hierarchy.
Can you imagine Lance being told to work for a Lieutenant, let’s say someone like Landis just to stir up more shit ;-) who’d gotten ahead of him in the GC in a breakaway?