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What's to judge he is riding as he was before, middle of the pack decent amongst mountain workers and he is maybe having a tough time carrying the massive backpack full of expectations up mountains. If guys need a teacher ,Gee and Jorgenson need to call Kuss and ask if there is anything to avoid when you have some good racing and everyone starts saying you are the new it rider.
I think he only goes to the clinic for GTs and keeps it on the down low the rest of the season. Very classic super peak but does it for every GT even when he rides 3 in a year. He will be the normal top 5 climber at the Tour in the pure mountain stages.
- Apr 30, 2011
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I think he'll be ready when he needs to. With this route and Jorgenson arriving at a high level, Kuss doesn't have to push himself until Tourmalet. It's the perfect year for him to just ride at the back of the peloton and take the gruppetto in the first half of the race.
- Apr 30, 2011
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This was apparently not exactly 'controversial' because he's out of the Tour (after being named in the team a few days ago).
You don't need to be a clairvoyant to see there's a Kuss problem at Visma.
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What do you mean by this? He is the sacrificial lamb for Jonas and Matteo, i.e., they are allowed to continue their program whilst Kuss must pay?
- Jul 16, 2015
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I don't think my post hinted at that at all & if it did, I didn't write it very well.
Personally I think Kuss is cooked. Done. Burned out physically & mentally after his 3 GT rampage last year. He also looks miserable as hell & gives weird interviews detached from reality.
It's a textbook example of 'unhappy athlete'. I have no idea what's going on at Visma inside the team but I'm pretty much 100% convinced there's an issue with Kuss. Whatever the actual cause is, I don't really know. It could be a combination of things (like the aforementioned burnout).
Why does any rider go from dominance to washed overnight? Take your pick regarding reasons. I just know the reason Zeeman gave for Kuss's replacement in the TdF startlist at Visma sounds very farfetched (he cited lack of recovery from Corona... which begs the question "was he recovered last week?" because they deemed him fit enough to name in the squad).
Armchair Cyclist
Moderator
- Mar 22, 2010
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Is it not perfectly reasonable to think, "Last week it looked like he would recover in time, but his recuperation has been slower than he had hoped"? Leeman could very easily have been told that they were not certain as to whether Kuss would be fit, and to be on active standby.
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No hint at all, I just assumed it is clinic related
. Btw I agree with you, he is not the same guy as last year. Maybe he just lost all motivation having won a grand tour. Maybe he is just tired of Jonas's "I did it for my second cousin" BS and he is looking to move on. Or maybe he decided the health risks of his program outweigh a top 10 in the Tour.
- Jul 16, 2015
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I don't believe so, no.
It's not a recent thing with Kuss. If he'd shown any form this season at any point then maybe what Zeeman said could be taken at face value but I don't see it.
Kuss would need to have shown something in Tignes, i.e. something which could also suggest he might get better at some point later in the Tour & he could be useful then. But here they just pulled the plug & said no.
FYI Kuss raced the Giro last year after testing positive for Covid. The difference was he was good back then.
Armchair Cyclist
Moderator
- Mar 22, 2010
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If he recovered well last year, that could make it more likely that they thought it was a confident hope that he would recover well this year, bur he has not. I'm not saying that it necessarily is the case (I have as little inside knowledge as I suspect you do), but this seems like unnecessary casting of doubt.
If your theory is that they never did include starting with Kuss, what would be their motivation in setting up a smoke screen about that?
- Jul 16, 2015
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I didn't hint at that either! Maybe my writing is all over the place here but that's not what I meant.
If I was to guess, I'd say Kuss was on the startlist the same way a football star is in the starting line-up of a world class football team... even when his form is bad. Aka because that's all they have & he's one of their stars.
Kuss was always in the Tour team from minute one this season. That was the season planning. Jumbo (& now Visma) announce their core Tour team very early in the season. Kuss was seen as unmovable & irreplaceable, i.e. especially after the accidents/illness of their other stars. I think it just reached a tipping point whereby 4 days before the Tour they've looked at the form curve of this rider & realized he's not going to get any better, so they pulled the plug before it gets any worse (like a DNF next week).
But the material point is Kuss wasn't fine when they announced their team last week. There was no recovery then & there's none now. They'd simply 'hoped' he'd be better.
IMO there's a lot of hopium in Visma's TdF planning right now due to all the problems they've had.
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Slavique Nuke
BANNED
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Maybe he no longer wants to keep feeding himself with Visma's radioactive breakfast & content to have won a GT by a fluke, doesn't want to risk that result and his fame or health. He still has a long contract, probably with a good salary, and has decided to transform himself into a mini-Froome
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Cookster15
Moderator
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I must ask why Sepp Kuss seems to have fallen off the face of the earth since his 2023 heroics? Not saying its Clinic related but safer to discuss here. Why have his results fallen away after his 2023 which culminated in him winning the Vuelta as part of a three pronged Visma?
In a way it reminds me how Horner disappeared after winning the 2013 Vuelta. Kuss is a very different case I know but still, same race, same result, similar aftermath. Horner didn't ride strongly in the Giro and Tour in the same season (Horner didn't even ride those grand tours in 2013).
The below post in discussing Matteo Jorgenson at Paris-Nice gives some context.
forum.cyclingnews.com
In a way it reminds me how Horner disappeared after winning the 2013 Vuelta. Kuss is a very different case I know but still, same race, same result, similar aftermath. Horner didn't ride strongly in the Giro and Tour in the same season (Horner didn't even ride those grand tours in 2013).
The below post in discussing Matteo Jorgenson at Paris-Nice gives some context.
Page 1010 - Teams & Riders - Tadej Pogačar discussion thread
Page 1010 - Get up to date with the latest news, scores & standings from the Cycling News Community.
forum.cyclingnews.com
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14+12+1=27. One of the lowest tally for GT GC in a season.
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Fourth I think and only one other person won a grand tour when riding all 3 in the same year.
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