Sepp Kuss, Robert Gesink & Dylan van Baarle spotted training at altitude after absence from Visma's Tour de France lineup

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!