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"Am I capable of winning the Tour? Yes, why not" - Sepp Kuss not looking to start Tour de France as pure domestique for Jonas Vingegaard
Sepp Kuss is now a Grand Tour winner following the V
cyclinguptodate.com
GC Kuss is real.
Well. There in my opinion is a "problem" involved now, Sepp will want to win one GT, being Tour or Vuelta. No way is he doing both as a non leader.
Sepp can't win the Tour, period, the competition is just too tough. Don't think he'll ever be in the same situation again as he was in La Vuelta, where he'll be "allowed" an early lead. I'm sure he can be top10 as a top mountain domestique in the Tour, and perhaps a top3-5 in the Vuelta as a protected rider, but let's not pretend last years success wasn't the consequence of everything alligning perfectly.
Great the lad has some confidence!
He won the Vuelta after all, and even though he got a bit of an elevator ride, he was still very strong, to the point where only his two team mates could compete with him. All the otehr guys in that elevator disappeared rather quickly.
I think most likely Visma will try to keep Sepp away from the heavy workload in the first two week if they can, by then Vingo has either crashed out or has showed he is the strongest rider on the team(/race).
I doubt Kuss is asking for more than the opportunity to show what he can do before he has to sacrifice his own GC to help Vingo. Visma want's to win the Tour in then third week.
He won the Vuelta after all, and even though he got a bit of an elevator ride, he was still very strong, to the point where only his two team mates could compete with him. All the otehr guys in that elevator disappeared rather quickly.
I think most likely Visma will try to keep Sepp away from the heavy workload in the first two week if they can, by then Vingo has either crashed out or has showed he is the strongest rider on the team(/race).
I doubt Kuss is asking for more than the opportunity to show what he can do before he has to sacrifice his own GC to help Vingo. Visma want's to win the Tour in then third week.
But what if Vingo is his super-domestique?
We know that Rogla crashes often (as smart Matej noticed) while Pogi may crumble after the Giro.Not really. He achieved a pretty impressive string of GC performances, no matter what anyone would say about the Vuelta drams. Given clear options to dedicate his training to winning a race might be ideal and he, like Roglic, needs to consider what his marketability is for several years to come.
Being used as a domestique is always available to him but the benefit of a few more GC wins would be rewarded with the kind of earned idolatry in the US. That is a seriously bankable circumstance and one he shouldn't ignore. Unless Jonas has a problem and Sepp is the designated Guy; he may face a repeat of 2023; minus the team directive that gave him support. He needs to think and negotiate where he wants to be; not where JV expects him to be.
Schlepping bottles, setting tempo and bringing back breakaways including Pogacar, Evenpoel....takes a ton of energy. He can still race as Vingo's tempo setter since he usually is breaking the field without breaking himself. Watch the number of Vingo attacks where he sits calmly and waits for opponents attempting a retrieval. He then magically bridges back up to the front combatants.
His "gift" at La Vuelta came after racing and completing two GTs that JV won. That's huge enough to make a career year. The question is how much can he improve TT'ing and overall GC performance in the face of serious opposition outside of JV? I'd say he can climb with Pogi but could he beat Roglic?
Kuss will he protected until the last week and half, like Landa, Hindley, and ayuso, but that doesn't mean they will be leaders.
Crazy strong season, I agree. It seems like Giro would be the best bet for him in general. I don’t see him beating Roglic in a GT. I could see him getting some time here and there but I don’t see how he gets enough to cover his almost certain ITT losses. Maybe his 3-GT season will cause a huge bump in form this year though. I hope so! Shame he isn’t ridding the Giro.
When working for others you are loose, uninhampered, the pressure is on someone else's shoulders. You don't have to drop anyone. Herein lies the difference.
I wrote that back in November but the tone of his comments seems have changed a bit. If he can somehow defend his vuelta win and/or has a top 5 in the tour, then someone will be paying dearly for his services
That is usually true, except he was expected and succeeded in dropping everyone; then comfortably riding up to his "leader's" wheel to maintain protection day after day. He undoubtedly discovered all of this breaking point thresholds and established new levels. Performing that way he knows his recovery as well as any of the top contenders.
The problem is always maintaining position during interstitial stages that aren't supposed to be that important where he can't lag back out of harm's way. He'd have to be in the kill zone that takes out the occasional contender.
He seems to be able to stay in the right place on fast finishes when he's not expected to be there so he may have some surprises for those that want to pigeonhole his skills as purely domestique. You don't rider US crits or kermesses without learning pack placement.
Having said all of that it's still optimistic speculation. The added media and pack pressure are another thing altogether. He's genial, approachable after his Vuelta. If you want to win a GT those fan demands take time and become less fun when you're really tired. Like every day tired.
It's going to be interesting to see if Jonas will live to regret not doing one good pull on Angliru. Just might come back and bite him on the ass.
If he had, Roglic would've gone full nuclear, if not on the Angrilu; on every other stage. Jonas played his hand by not staying with Kuss.
He didn't need to do much, just up the pace a little. What was the difference after? only some seconds? A realized GC Kuss is interesting, but not necessarily in Jonas' favor.
Roglic would have a hard time finding any real time for GC. The challenges where not there the rest of the race. It was also obvious the the other teams where racing him and not Jonas, they didn't bother that much with him.
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Something switched in Sepp on Angliru, Rogla gave him that as a farewell present, due to all the hard work Sepp did for him in years prior.
That someone would have to be Visma, since he just signed a contract extension. I think everyone knows Kuss should be capable of a top-5 in the Tour, I'm not sure that would really increase his market value.
As for winning the whole thing, well, a lot of stars would have to align for that to happen. It's not impossible, but in the Tour you're not likely to get a situation like in the Vuelta, where Quickstep just weren't strong enough to prevent Kuss from getting in the break with a few strong teammates. And then he'd have to win purely on his own strength.
When Kuss starts TdF, he does it with 0 GTs in his legs. So he will be a lot stronger.
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