"I told him: we can't let you go in the breakaway every day" - Sepp Kuss shares joke with Remco Evenepoel at La Vuelta

Sepp Kuss is looking mightily good for the overall victory as the Vuelta a Espana reaches the second rest day. Things were helped massively on stage 13 by Remco Evenepoel's collapse.

Since then, the Belgian has made successive breakaway appearances although Kuss has revealed he shared a joke with the Soudal - Quick-Step leader pre-stage 15. "It was another very good ride from him, but I spoke to him before the start," says the American. "I told him: we can't let you go in the breakaway every day, because then you'll get back all the time you lost, you know? However, he is still far behind and replied that he would only go for stage wins."

With Jumbo-Visma in complete control of the general classification, the biggest threat to a first career Grand Tour victory for Kuss seems like being his own teammates, Primoz Roglic and Jonas Vingegaard.

"In these kinds of transition stages you never know exactly how things will go, but again it went very fast from the start. Alpecin-Deceuninck also set the pace on the last two climbs," Kuss recaps of stage 15. "They still wanted to go for the stage win, but the speed was still very high. That's how it always goes the day before a rest day, it seems like everyone wants to get rid of some energy."