Sepp Kuss, Robert Gesink & Dylan van Baarle spotted training at altitude after absence from Visma's Tour de France lineup
Cycling
At the 2024 Tour de France, Jonas Vingegaard is without his trusty lieutenant of past Grand Tours, Sepp Kuss. After being forced out of the Tour with a positive Covid test, the American is now back on his bike at altitude, training alongside some Team Visma | Lease a Bike teammates with the Vuelta a Espana in mind.
As mentioned, Kuss was originally planned to be a key part in Jonas Vingegaard's mountain support at the Tour de France. Just a few days before the Tour was about to get underway however, Team Visma | Lease a Bike were forced into a sad announcement. "This is of course very hard for Sepp in the first place. His contribution is always very important in the team, but then of course he has to be completely fit," analysed sports director Merijn Zeeman to the team's official website. "Unfortunately, we had to conclude together today that this is insufficiently the case, after Covid. He now needs to recover properly and will therefore not start."
Although Kuss' replacement, Bart Lemmen has acquitted himself admirably on Tour de France debut, it's not disrespect to say that the Dutchman isn't on Kuss' level. As such, there has been some comments from experts that a key reason Vingegaard finds himself over three minutes down on the second rest day of the 2024 Tour de France, is Kuss' absence. After all, the American has been a key figure in both of the Dane's Maillot Jaune victories in 2022 and 2023, plus helping Primoz Roglic to Giro d'Italia victory last year and winning the Vuelta a Espana himself.
In images posted to the official Instagram story of Robert Gesink, Kuss and Dylan van Baarle can be seen training at altitude ahead of a return to Spain later this summer, where Kuss will attempt to defend his Red Jersey win from last year, likely against his former teammate Roglic.
See Team Visma | Lease a Bike's Tour de France absentees at altitude down below!
Kieran WoodDeputy Editor-in-Chief
Kieran Wood is a sports journalist based in Wales and has been active in journalism since 2022. He regularly contributes to DartsNews.com and CyclingUpToDate.com, where he covers professional cycling and darts. In cycling, his work includes liveblogs from major races, including the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia, and La Vuelta a España, alongside race reports and analysis. He has also conducted interviews with professional riders.
His reporting spans the full racing calendar, from one-day classics to stage races, with a focus on accurate, real-time coverage and clear contextual analysis. For statistics, results, and historical context, he regularly uses resources such as ProCyclingStats. To support reporting on rider activity and training context where relevant, he also references Strava.
In his work, Kieran places strong emphasis on careful sourcing, editorial accuracy, and updating articles as new, verified information becomes available.
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- That's an excellent point. It's interesting that Vader came to that realization only after he learned that his contract wasn't going to be renewed.
santiagobenites14-11-2026 - Indeed! A reluctant gift maybe. Even more reluctant gift from Roglic! Tho I can’t see that Rog would have beaten Ving anyway.Lozza14-11-2026
- That really nasty crash in 2022 Liege must have played a big part - broken ribs, pneumothorax. You only have to look at his points tallies pre and post.Lozza14-11-2026
- Yeah, good luck getting tv and race organisers like ASO etc to part with their cash!Lozza14-11-2026
- 36 and Ineos have bought a rider on the downward slope. Bring back Dave and Rob who could manage the team. How are Ineos going to win a grand tour with people past their sell by date.paultryan200214-11-2026
- Mmmm would he be making these comments when he was on the richest team when riding. I think not i suspect. If we want money put into the sport we need sponsors who are prepared to put the money in. No disrespect but his team are 2nd or 3rd div in football terms with riders over the hill or 2nd string riders. If i was a sponsor i would be looking at what publicity am i getting back and Tudor really are just making up the numbers really.paultryan200214-11-2026
- I see (elsewhere) that Alaphilippe had more to say than what got relayed in this stub. Me: he was very good early but his latter third trajectory was the pits. His old boss did what he could (huffed and puffed) but Julian couldn't get his greatness back. Sometimes I wonder if crashes that didn't look like much changed the course of the rider.flyer14-11-2026
- I wouldn't classify it as a gift because the nasty consequences of taking it from Sepp would have been great and would persist and he knew it.flyer14-11-2026
- Ok. Tratnik's good and Red Bull's better so Tratnik may get what he wants.flyer14-11-2026
- Ok. So just saying he wasn't enjoying racing anymore is some kind of explanation? Me saying I don't enjoy his explanation is more explaining than he did.flyer14-11-2026
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