"You’re becoming a sprinter!" - Sepp Kuss jokes with Jonas Vingegaard after stage 1 of Criterium du Dauphiné 2025
Cycling
Team Visma | Lease a Bike put in one of their best team performances of the season on stage 1 of the 2025 Criterium du Dauphiné on Sunday, with the likes of Sepp Kuss and Matteo Jorgenson helping to place team leader Jonas Vingegaard front and centre of all the action against his great rivals Tadej Pogacar and Remco Evenepoel.
Although Vingegaard was ultimately beaten by Pogacar in the final sprint, spirits were clearly bolstered within the Visma team by their performance on the opening stage. Kuss, so often a loyal domestique for the Dane over the years, cut a beaming figure as he entered the Team Visma | Lease a Bike team bus afterwards, laughing and joking with Vingegaard, telling his team leader: "You’re becoming a sprinter!"
“We reckon Jonas, Matteo and Ben Tulett will be well placed in the general classification after the time trial (17.4 km, Wednesday), whereas it suits me a bit less,” Kuss added further in post-stage comments collected by French news outlet L'Equipe. “But the weekend stages are very hard and very short, so we’ll really be able to take risks and go all in.”
The aforementioned Jorgenson was especially active in the finale alongside Vingegaard, igniting a fight for bonus seconds at the intermediate sprint. “It was a good day on the bike — fun, entertaining. As long as there are seconds up for grabs, of course I’ll go for them,” explained the two-time Paris–Nice winner after the stage. “I enjoy it, and it makes the stage pass quicker.”
“No one should hold back to lose time, and if we can play with more cards, all the better. But in the end, I think the final days will be a showdown between the big favourites: Pogacar, Evenepoel and Jonas,” added Visma's DS Arthur van Dongen in conclusion, pushing the narrative of Jorgenson being a co-leader alongside Vingegaard. “He can play a key role.”
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🇫🇷 #Dauphiné
— Team Visma | Lease a Bike (@vismaleaseabike) June 8, 2025
Pure cinema. 🍿 pic.twitter.com/1vY1EtxGFg
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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- Yep, next we’ll be accusing F1 drivers of avoiding Le Mans.Jumpyjohn07-11-2026
- But on what is that opinion based? Are you holding him to a different standard than others? Are you saying he should do learn to like something he doesn’t Are you saying he hasn’t achieved enough Are you saying he pretends to be better than his results? It’s actually a really strange opinion to oust if you consider it objectively or rationally. Try applying it to others or yourself by asking if not EVERYONE should then be doing more? Nobody in athletics or swimming gets criticism for not expanding their repertoire when a rival or someone else does. In fact, most who move to another event get accused of running from their rival. Opinions are boring, the reasons behind them are what count.Jumpyjohn07-11-2026
- for a medical chief to throw things like is just bad. There are already radios which were banned for spectacle. allow radios. Gps trackers are not a complete solutionabstractengineer07-11-2026
- Yeah man...PogiSloFans07-11-2026
- any rider less than 25 whether they are really ready for the position of leadership of GT is probably not the case. I think Pogi himself suffered when he was defeated by Jonas in the TDF twice. But that would be the team's job to ensure support so that they can bounce back. It requires a team and time to get back up and win after getting knocked down.abstractengineer07-11-2026
- I'm very glad he got the big late Quickstep Vuelta win and I hope he has a few left for Euskaltel-Euskadi.flyer07-11-2026
- My memories of Ivan Basso aren't good but I liked his sister Elisa ok.flyer07-11-2026
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