"Without him, it would be a different dynamic" - Sepp Kuss happy that Wout van Aert's success has eases pressure on Visma after disappointing GC performance

After shocking his own teammates to take his first individual Grand Tour win at the 2023 Vuelta a Espana, Sepp Kuss returned to the Spain as the outright GC leader of Team Visma | Lease a Bike this time around. Sadly for the American however, things haven't quite gone to plan so far.

After 10 stages in the legs, Kuss is languishing down in 14th overall, more than eight minutes of the Red Jersey currently held by Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team's Ben O'Connor. "If I just look to myself, I was pretty happy with the first week," Kuss says in quotes collected by Cycling News from Ponteareas ahead of stage 10. "I was consistent all the days. I never had that extra bit to really be there with the best guys, but I never had a bad, bad day either. On stage 9, I didn't have the best feeling, but I was happy and surprised that I made it through like I did. It's still something to build on."

Although Kuss didn't lose any more time on stage 10, the American's large deficit in the general classification means he may have to start attempting to get into the breakaways. "A lot of it is just about seeing what happens in the moment – and also having the legs," Kuss explains. "Because if you go for it and commit, then you have to have really good legs to do it. I just have to see if there are opportunities that come up either to make up some time or try to win a stage. So far, this Vuelta has been pretty crazy almost every other day. So I'm just looking for those days and seeing what I can make out of it."

It must be noted that, despite winning the Vuelta a Espana warm up race in Burgos, Kuss' doesn't come to the Grand Tour in the best of form having had a year disrupted by illness, including a late omission from the Tour de France due to Covid. There is a big difference between the Tour and the Vuelta this year though, as the lack of Tadej Pogacar, Jonas Vingegaard or Remco Evenepoel give the Spanish Grand Tour a very open feel.

"It's definitely not like the Tour, where you have every single team with their best riders. It's still a really talented and deep field but there are fewer dominant teams I would say, and that makes the racing in my opinion a bit more interesting," analyses Kuss. "And Decathlon know they have a large gap over the other favourites, so it's less on them to control it."

Thankfully for Kuss and Team Visma | Lease a Bike though, despite the disappointing GC showing from the American so far, the race hasn't been a complete disaster for the team, largely due to the three stage wins from Wout van Aert. "With Wout here, he always makes the team better," Kuss concludes. "Without him, it would be sure for a different dynamic. You always want him to be here."