"Seven riders unanimously agreed Kuss should win, Primoz had a more difficult time with this" - Merijn Zeeman recalls Jumbo-Visma's 'clear the air' meeting at the Vuelta a Espana

At the third Grand Tour of 2023, Jumbo-Visma asserted their dominance over the remainder of the peloton, locking out the podium and completing their Grand Tour hattrick for the year. During the Spanish race though, the biggest rival to Sepp Kuss seemed to be his own teammates.

“In fact, everything went as we wanted. There were only three of us left and that was actually the moment when things didn't go well," Jumbo-Visma's sports director Merijn Zeeman recalls of the infamous Angliru stage that saw both Primoz Roglic and Jonas Vingegaard leave their Red Jersey-wearing teammate behind, in quotes collected by Wielerflits. "At a certain point, Sepp could no longer follow Primoz and Jonas. Then there was no more teamwork.”

“Everything that had happened up to that point was teamwork, but on the Angliru they should have stayed together," Zeeman continues. “Attacking to get other riders to work is something different than attacking each other. We must immediately say: you drive uphill on lanes of up to 200%. You race with a heart rate of 200. You cannot expect those men to think clearly.”

Following this, there was much criticism of both Jonas Vingegaard, Primoz Roglic and Jumbo-Visma as a whole in the global media. This was understandably not a good look for the team and somewhat forced Zeeman to call a 'clear the air' meeting between all eight riders as he recalls.

“For us, cycling is not an individual sport, but a team sport. That same evening I put the men all at one table. I did speak to Jonas, Sepp and Primoz beforehand and heard their views. But then I got eight grown men together and said, guys, this is what happened today. I have my thoughts on this, but I think it's much more important what you think,” Zeeman says.

“What do we stand for now? Who are we actually? Seven riders unanimously agreed: this (Sepp Kuss as winner of the Vuelta, ed.) must be the final result. Primoz had a more difficult time with this, but he conformed very much to the whole. This was also because his teammates stated this so forcefully. He finally said: Sepp has to win and you can count on me," concludes Zeeman.

Next year of course, Kuss and Vingegaard will be on an opposite team to Roglic as the Slovenian makes the jump to BORA - hansgrohe. How much this was because of what transpired in Spain we may never know, but next year we may see whether Roglic truly would have the beating of his teammates turned rivals.