"The form is there and I also feel good" - Sepp Kuss sounds rather optimistic despite another lesser day at the Vuelta

Sepp Kuss finished the extremely tough ninth stage at the Vuelta a Espana in fifteenth place. The 29-year-old American had to give in several minutes to the other classification riders at the finish line, arriving next to Mattias Skjelmose and Cristian Rodriguez.

In the group of favourites, Kuss had to let go some of the other GC riders on the final climb. "As expected, this was a difficult day," Kuss said afterwards. "I couldn't immediately assess how my feeling was today. The heat played its role from the start. On the final climb, I decided to choose my own pace. Looking back, I'm satisfied that I managed to limit the damage again."

"The form is there and I also feel good. Right now there are a lot of riders in excellent shape. I am now trying to focus on my own performance. There are still two long weeks to come in this Vuelta. We will see what those can offer," the American concluded.

The Visma | Lease a Bike rider thus continues in a 14th place overall, but the top spots are a bit further once again as Kuss now trails more than 4 minutes behind Primoz Roglic and more than 8 minutes behind red jersey Ben O'Connor.