Teams & Riders Sepp Kuss is the next Sepp Kuss thread

[Samu Cuenca]

Who says he doesn't do that everyday?

I can assure you that it definitely isn't the case. I usually bring a squirrel.

 

[Netserk]

Absolutely no way Remco puts 2 minutes into Kuss. Remco needs to stop talking sh*t.

Wanna bet?

 

[ManicJack]

Wanna bet?

Show me one flat TT that Kuss has ridden at 100% effort that would give anyone any indication of what he is supposedly incapable of doing.

 

[theyoungest]

Show me one flat TT that Kuss has ridden at 100% effort that would give anyone any indication of what he is supposedly incapable of doing.

His weak point is his TT position. In a flat TT that obviously affects him the most. Let's take his two most recent ITTs, in the Giro and in the TDF. In both he did quite well, finished 6th and 14th, respectively, and I think we can suppose he went all out.

But in the flat part of the Giro TT, he was 18th and lost 38 secs to Roglic in 11 kms. On the descent and flat part in the Tour TT, he was only 47th, and lost nearly 50 secs to Vingegaard in 9 kms.

Extrapolate that and losing 2 minutes to Evenepoel on a 26 k flattish TT seems quite reasonable. I think he'll lose 1.30 at the very least.

 

[Netserk]

Show me one flat TT that Kuss has ridden at 100% effort that would give anyone any indication of what he is supposedly incapable of doing.

That sounds like you are up for a bet. May I propose that the loser of the bet is barred from posting for a week?

 

[cen]

"Sepp, show the world you are the strongest"

 

[Elos Anjos]

If Kuss ends up winning or making it top 5 it would be an incredible feature after making two GTs.

 

[ManicJack]

That sounds like you are up for a bet. May I propose that the loser of the bet is barred from posting for a week?

I doubt you would fulfill your end of the bargain.

 

[Berniece]

Bigmouth Remco said yesterday in the pre-start interview that he reckons he can take 2 minutes on Kuss.
That's 4.65 seconds / km, and given a 53km/h TT that would result in e.g. 29min12s for Remco and shipping 2 minutes would be 31:12 or the equivalent of doing 49.6 km/hr or around 3.5K/hr slower.

Absolutely no way Remco puts 2 minutes into Kuss. Remco needs to stop talking sh*t.

That's not what he said. He said 1 to 2 minutes. So sure on a good day for Remco and a bad for Kuss he might take 2min, but Remco is intelligent enough to know it might only be 1min.

 

[Red Rick]

I doubt you would fulfill your end of the bargain.

Already backtracking I see.

Kuss was GC leader in UAE 2021 and lost 1'40 in 14km

 

[ManicJack]

Already backtracking I see.

Kuss was GC leader in UAE 2021 and lost 1'40 in 14km

What am I backtracking on?

 

[Volderke]

That's not what he said. He said 1 to 2 minutes. So sure on a good day for Remco and a bad for Kuss he might take 2min, but Remco is intelligent enough to know it might only be 1min.

Verbatim from the (end of the) interview:

Moet Evenepoel schrik hebben voor rode trui Kuss? "Denk dat ik hem in de tijdrit 2 minuten kan aansmeren" | sporza

Terwijl iedereen had verwacht dat Remco Evenepoel vanuit het Jumbo-kamp rekening moest houden met Primoz Roglic en Jonas Vingegaard is het hun ploegmaat Sepp Kuss die na iets meer dan een week in het rood rondrijdt. Wordt de Amerikaan misschien de derde hond die met het been gaat lopen?

sporza.be

reporter: "Meanwhile, Sepp Kuss has an advantage of 2.5 minutes. Do you take into account that Sepp Kuss is maybe the number 1 GC guy within the JV team?"
Remco: "Errrm, that is possible for sure (pausing and thinking), but I'm sure I can give him (literally: palm of on) a 2-minute deficit on Tuesday (grinning) "

So in short, yes, he said that (or I wouldn't write it). And while he said that, he said so with confidence. We'll see if that is overconfidence!

ps: on top of that, Klaas Lodewijk, his DS, said exactly the same thing today: They believe in it, ofcourse, they aren't sure and they probably aren't putting their money where their mouth is:
\Whether Remco can take 2 minutes on Kuss? I certainly believe in that. Whether it will be the case, must be seen tomorrow."

 

[Oldermanish]

That's not what he said. He said 1 to 2 minutes. So sure on a good day for Remco and a bad for Kuss he might take 2min, but Remco is intelligent enough to know it might only be 1min.

And he'd be right in analyzing his odds accordingly. Except that he said this out loud and to Manic's point, Kuss is seldom in a position to fully commit to a TT.
I think the overall impact could be this two prior GTs, the first 9 stages of work in this race and the impact of a chaotic rest day. That's a real wild card.
I hope he does exceptionally well and keeps this race alive but he's going to get tired leading this race.

 

[theyoungest]

And he'd be right in analyzing his odds accordingly. Except that he said this out loud and to Manic's point, Kuss is seldom in a position to fully commit to a TT.
I think the overall impact could be this two prior GTs, the first 9 stages of work in this race and the impact of a chaotic rest day. That's a real wild card.
I hope he does exceptionally well and keeps this race alive but he's going to get tired leading this race.

That's not it. Kuss just isn't a very good time trialist. He's just an oldschool pure climber. Very un-American, but he is.

People think that Jumbo doesn't give him a chance or whatever, he has had the chance to be a GC guy and he has failed every time. Partly because of his TT.

 

[search]

Already backtracking I see.

Kuss was GC leader in UAE 2021 and lost 1'40 in 14km

Kuss was at Domestique's Cycling Podcast today. He said in 2021 they invested a lot to try to improve his time trialing, which actually resulted in the opposite. When he stopped training for it, he got a lot better again.

This year a practice day before the TTT was the only time he used his time trial bike outside a race.

Vuelta a España Review - Feat. Sepp Kuss - Domestique Cycling Podcast

GC Kuss is real and he took some time out of his rest day to talk to us about his experiences at this years Vuelta, the level of the race, his dream race to win and his In-N-Out order.

www.buzzsprout.com

 

[Netserk]

I doubt you would fulfill your end of the bargain.

It's easy to guarantee, we simply ask @Red Rick to enforce it by banning the loser for a week.

Are you up?

Alternatively, you can admit that it's very likely that Kuss will lose 2 minutes to Evenepoel, and thus that there was nothing outrageous about his statement.

 

[theyoungest]

Kuss was at Domestique's Cycling Podcast today. He said in 2021 they invested a lot to try to improve his time trialing, which actually resulted in the opposite. When he stopped training for it, he got a lot better again.

This year a practice day before the TTT was the only time he used his time trial bike outside a race.

Vuelta a España Review - Feat. Sepp Kuss - Domestique Cycling Podcast

GC Kuss is real and he took some time out of his rest day to talk to us about his experiences at this years Vuelta, the level of the race, his dream race to win and his In-N-Out order.

www.buzzsprout.com

Also available in video format.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSs_yGvjnRE


Quite typical for Kuss that he lends about an hour of his time on the rest day to some obscure Belgian (?) podcast A really relaxed guy.

 

[Red Rick]

Kuss' best longer ITT was probably the 1st ITT of the 2021 Tour, where he got 33rd, 1'57 down from Pogacar in a 27km 32 minute ITT, which in that ITT was basically middle of the pack of the non ITTer GC riders.

 

[IndurainsTdF1994]

Sure, it's his third GT, but it depends on how you look at it. He's not in the top-100 of riders with the most race days this season. And the Vuelta is probably the race that suits him the most. A little more relaxed, a little more easy going.

Three top 15 GC placements in the GTs in one season, definitely not bad. Who achieved this last?

Perhaps even top 1 in La Vuelta. 👑🐐

 

[Berniece]

Verbatim from the (end of the) interview:

Moet Evenepoel schrik hebben voor rode trui Kuss? "Denk dat ik hem in de tijdrit 2 minuten kan aansmeren" | sporza

Terwijl iedereen had verwacht dat Remco Evenepoel vanuit het Jumbo-kamp rekening moest houden met Primoz Roglic en Jonas Vingegaard is het hun ploegmaat Sepp Kuss die na iets meer dan een week in het rood rondrijdt. Wordt de Amerikaan misschien de derde hond die met het been gaat lopen?

sporza.be

reporter: "Meanwhile, Sepp Kuss has an advantage of 2.5 minutes. Do you take into account that Sepp Kuss is maybe the number 1 GC guy within the JV team?"
Remco: "Errrm, that is possible for sure (pausing and thinking), but I'm sure I can give him (literally: palm of on) a 2-minute deficit on Tuesday (grinning)

When you listen to the interview and not the written text he says: “a minute or two”. So like I said 1-2 minutes.

The only reason why I’m going on about this is because someone else said he was talking ***, and that’s how he gets a bad name. Because things were wrongly quoted or without any context.

 

[KZD]

Three top 15 GC placements in the GTs in one season, definitely not bad. Who achieved this last?

Perhaps even top 1 in La Vuelta. 👑🐐

Valverde in 2016, 3rd in the Giro, 6th at the Tour and 12th in the Vuelta.

 

[SHAD0W93]

Three top 15 GC placements in the GTs in one season, definitely not bad. Who achieved this last?

Perhaps even top 1 in La Vuelta. 👑🐐

Could have got better each GT without the Tour crash.

2016 Valverde; 3, 6, and 12 with one noncrack away from all 3 top 10

Next best
2010 Sastre; 8, 20, 8
2008 Bruseghin, 3, 27, 10
1958 Bahamontes; 17, 8, 6
1957 Nencini; 1, 6, 9
1955 Geminiani, 4, 6, 3

 

[VeloMaster]

People think that Jumbo doesn't give him a chance or whatever, he has had the chance to be a GC guy and he has failed every time. Partly because of his TT.

He's been pretty clear over the years that he is not temperamentally suited to being a GC leader. Now, you may say this is ex post facto rationalization, 'covering' for his suboptimal TT skills, but it fits with what he know of his (public) persona.

No need to be so disparaging. Besides, were Wonder Boy to take back 2 mins, who's to say he can keep all of it? We may not know until the 3rd week.

 

[Volderke]

When you listen to the interview and not the written text he says: “a minute or two”. So like I said 1-2 minutes.

The only reason why I’m going on about this is because someone else said he was talking ***, and that’s how he gets a bad name. Because things were wrongly quoted or without any context.

What do you think verbatim means?
I'm not watching interviews and writing down word-for-word before reading I should watch the interview... I didn't even read the text.

I know how to read between the lines and I speak and understand some Flemish, coincidentally.
"Ik verwacht da'k em ook een minuut of 2 kan aansmeren dinsdag' = I think I can take 2 minutes (it’s the equivalent of saying someone is distanced by a meter or 5, not meaning anything between 1-5 meters, but approx 5 meters. So here, it’s approx 2 minutes what Remco is saying)
And you interprete this as 1-2 minutes. I mean, how much are you willing to twist what is there, into what you want it to be? He didn't say 1 or 2 minutes, or 1.5 minute or whatever that is different from 2 minutes.

 

[Sciatic]

Verbatim from the (end of the) interview:

Moet Evenepoel schrik hebben voor rode trui Kuss? "Denk dat ik hem in de tijdrit 2 minuten kan aansmeren" | sporza

Terwijl iedereen had verwacht dat Remco Evenepoel vanuit het Jumbo-kamp rekening moest houden met Primoz Roglic en Jonas Vingegaard is het hun ploegmaat Sepp Kuss die na iets meer dan een week in het rood rondrijdt. Wordt de Amerikaan misschien de derde hond die met het been gaat lopen?

sporza.be

reporter: "Meanwhile, Sepp Kuss has an advantage of 2.5 minutes. Do you take into account that Sepp Kuss is maybe the number 1 GC guy within the JV team?"
Remco: "Errrm, that is possible for sure (pausing and thinking), but I'm sure I can give him (literally: palm of on) a 2-minute deficit on Tuesday (grinning) "

So in short, yes, he said that (or I wouldn't write it). And while he said that, he said so with confidence. We'll see if that is overconfidence!

ps: on top of that, Klaas Lodewijk, his DS, said exactly the same thing today: They believe in it, ofcourse, they aren't sure and they probably aren't putting their money where their mouth is:
\Whether Remco can take 2 minutes on Kuss? I certainly believe in that. Whether it will be the case, must be seen tomorrow."

What a well-reasoned response, thanks. I don’t know why folks should jump on Remco for simply stating his confidence in his capabilities vs. those of another rider. Seems like that’s just his M.O. in interacting with media. I would think that kind of confidence in one’s capabilities is a necessity at the elite level, though not every rider verbalized it.

And hey, we only have to wait like 20 hours to see the actual outcome