"I was held up by the crash, so I had to chase, but that didn't work out" - Sepp Kuss loses another minute on Roglic due to Aleksandr Vlasov's crash on Cazorla

The defending Vuelta a Espana champion Sepp Kuss is so far somewhat behind expectations that he himself, but also his team put at him ahead of the Spanish Grand Tour. Last year Kuss received a head start along with a breakaway victory, but this time, he's only taking blows from the start of the season, something that's yet to change at the Vuelta too.

Another blow came at the final parts of the eighth stage to Cazorla. As the peloton approached the steep final climb, a battle for positions at the front broke out. That went relatively smoothly, however as soon as riders hit the steep start of the final climb, Aleksandr Vlasov encountered a problem that forced him to the ground, taking the American Sepp Kuss along with him.

"I felt great and we were well positioned as a team for the final climb," Kuss begins to tell the story of his day on the Visma | Lease a Bike website. "At the beginning of the climb I was held up by the crash, so I had to chase. I tried to join the group of favorites, but unfortunately that didn't quite work out."

Kuss' teammate Edoardo Affini saw it all happen up close. "We were positioning ourselves towards the last corner before the final climb," he told Eurosport afterwards. "It was very hectic. I think Sepp started the climb in the top fifteen. But Vlasov fell, or had a mechanical failure or something. He hit Sepp, which made Sepp fall down for a moment. But he got up quickly and rode back towards the peloton. What happened after that, I don't know," the Italian laughed.

Kuss still took some time to remount his bicycle and in the meantime front group lead by Primoz Roglic rode away. The Visma | Lease a Bike rider was able to briefly rejoin the front at a moment of silence of weapons, but eventually bounced off the group of favourites and finished 21st, losing more than a minute to stage winner Roglic. After eight days of racing, Kuss is 14th overall, 6:22 behind race leader Ben O'Connor and 2:33 behind the Slovenian top favourite.