Sepp Kuss puts Covid and Tour de France disappointment behind with Burgos victory: "I struggled for quite a long time with the after-effects of covid"

Sepp Kuss has had a difficult season but has won for the first time today at the Vuelta a Burgos. He missed out on the Tour de France due to a Covid-19 infection but ahead of his Vuelta a España title defense, he has showed great form in the summit finish at Lagunas de Neila where he took a solo victory.

It was the result of an attack with 1.5 kilometers to go. After Jefferson Alveiro Cepeda latched on his wheel for a while, the Team Visma | Lease a Bike rider went off on his own inside the final kilometer to take the victory. "I'm very happy with this. It was a tough day, partly because of the heat," Kuss said in a post-race interview. "On the final climb I was struggling quite a bit, but I wanted to try at least once. When I saw I had created a gap, I went as hard as I could. I'm glad it worked out and I want to thank my teammates for all the work they did."

Kuss takes over the race lead ahead of the key time-trial that should decide the race. He risks losing the purple jersey, but it will be a good test into the Vuelta which starts with a time-trial in Lisbon in the space of only 10 days. "I struggled for quite a long time with the after-effects of covid. Fortunately, I am now back on level and the confidence is back. I'm ready to defend my title in the Vuelta."

Visma are happy to see one of their key figures back to good form, and overcoming a sequence of crashes that affected him in the opening days. "That Sepp put in such a performance straight away in his first race gives a lot of confidence. After his crash yesterday, we had to wait and see how he would feel today," team DS Marc Reef added. "During the race, the riders were very motivated to make the best of it. Robert and Johannes did a good job for Cian and Sepp on the last two climbs and after Cian's attack, Sepp finished it off fantastically."

"Beforehand we had said we wanted to prepare for the Vuelta, ride a good GC and fight for a stage win. The latter has been achieved and with the other two we are well on our way. I expect a very interesting battle tomorrow in the time trial."