When a weary-looking Sepp Kuss rode up the sunlit Gran Via in Madrid final September 8 on the ultimate day of the 2024 Vuelta a España, crossed the end line of the stage 21 time trial and talked to reporters, reasonably than brush over the frustration, his evaluation of the below-expectations Grand Tour he had simply accomplished was notably unsparing.
“There’s no excuses, actually,” the 2023 Vuelta a España winner stated after ending a lowly 14th general a 12 months later and having barely impacted on the GC battle besides.
“You can all the time say one factor or one other, however on the finish of the day, all people has hurdles and issues or excuses. I simply must be higher subsequent time round.”
Fast ahead 4 months and after an equally lengthy spell away from racing, Kuss will as soon as once more be tackling the Tour de France and the Vuelta a España in 2025. And he advised reporters through the Visma crew launch in Benidorm this week, his concept is to pivot his complete season on having the ability to hearth on all cylinders come the summer season.
“My major aim is being one of the best I will be at these two races,” the 30-year-old from Colorado stated. “I’m not racing an excessive amount of within the spring and I’m not all the time at my finest at the moment, so I need to use that as a base to construct for the summer season. The focus goes to be there.”
Far from being a throwaway phrase on the finish of a Grand Tour, then, that “simply have to higher” concept he talked about in Madrid final September seems to be set to be a key part of Kuss’ 2025 season plans.
Yet it is what, precisely, Kuss desires to do along with his hoped-for return to way more steady prime type this 12 months that in all probability constitutes probably the most intriguing component of the American’s upcoming marketing campaign.
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Two Grand Tours and a two-part plan
Albeit far simpler stated than executed, the extra straightforward-looking a part of Kuss’ 2025 plans is his want to proceed as a prime climbing domestique for crew leaders like Jonas Vingegaard.
That’s one thing he has often achieved for a lot of his profession, to the purpose the place in the case of Jumbo and Visma’s Grand Tour successes each with the Dane and earlier than that former teammate Primoz Roglič, Kuss’ observe document of being a key mountain helper is just second to none.
“It’s a task I like, a task that is rather a lot simpler than being a pacesetter within the race and a task I can do fairly nicely,” he factors out on the Visma media day, and his deeply developed understanding of what that mission implies shines by, too, when he is requested concerning the addition of fellow ace climber Simon Yates to the Visma roster over the winter.
The American does something however bristle or get passive-aggressive at the opportunity of a possible competitor to his place as prime mountain domestique. Rather, given the way in which mountain racing methods have modified lately, Kuss argues that Yates’ arrival will assist give the crew an edge within the sort of terrain the place a big distinction might made in the case of defeating rivals like Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirate-XRG).
“These days, you want riders who can actually speed up on the proper second, you do not make such a distinction at driving a [steady] laborious tempo any extra. The stage is so excessive now, you want actually particular riders for particular moments,” Kuss says.
It’s past query that these crunch mountain stage duties come naturally to the American, to the purpose the place he is been often touted previously as one of the best climbing domestique on the planet.
However, wanting forward it is Kuss’ GC ambitions which appear more durable to pin down, and if the waters in that space had been already considerably muddied by the tough 2024 Vuelta, the excessive factors of Visma’s crew presentation this January hardly made them any clearer both.
Rather when it got here to the second the place the star names of the 2025 crew lineup had been introduced up in entrance of the media, Simon Yates was – unsurprisingly – a kind of going through the standard spherical of softball questions from the MC alongside Vingegaard, Olav Kooij and Wout van Aert.
However, Kuss, regardless of having a sole Grand Tour victory within the Vuelta a España like Yates, was notably lacking from their quantity.
Interestingly, Kuss later stated he didn’t appear significantly bothered by the shortage of consideration, and – the truth is – it seems that Kuss’ feels he operates most successfully when he isn’t being put within the limelight like the massive crew stars.
“It’s extra comfy being out of the highlight, there are much less expectations for positive from the surface,” he later defined when requested about his absence from the crew media presentation.
“I’ve the identical expectations or motivation for myself, however for the sort of particular person I’m – I’d reasonably be out of the highlight.”
Rather than having designated chief’s standing, as he places it, “when I’ve carried out [led in a stage race – Ed.] it is by no means been once I knew up entrance that I’d be the one which performs.”
He cites the 2023 Vuelta, which he gained after infiltrating a primary week break then staying up on GC, as a working example. “It was by no means remotely on my radar to be a pacesetter in a Grand Tour, but it surely turned out to be that method,” he says.
“So I would not say up entrance I’m on the lookout for management in a Grand Tour or I’m on the lookout for the alternative. It’s nearly exhibiting up and doing one of the best model of myself and seeing what comes of that.”
This opportunistic, below-the-radar angle is a far cry from, say, Jonas Vingegaard’s clear, already said, ambition of profitable the Vuelta subsequent September and it could appear unlikely to guage by his phrases that Kuss will determine as joint chief subsequent August.
Instead, in the case of his 2025 GC objectives, Kuss seems to be set to be taking his targets every day. It’s a technique that is labored notably for him previously, after all – and there is no motive why it will not work once more this 12 months too.
“I’ll take each race in my stride and see the place I can get a chance,” he says. “I’m not trying to overtake anyone or something like that, we have now some super-talented riders. I’m going to assist them first and see what I can get out of it for myself as nicely.”
He readily agrees, too, when Cyclingnews places it to him that he might have a ‘free electron’ position within the 2025 Vuelta to Vingegaard’s extra established place as crew chief, earlier than mentioning that the Vuelta itself has a race route that favours him in that place in comparison with the Tour.
“Yeah, yeah, it is doable. The Vuelta is a little more easy than the Tour the place must get by the primary week with out shedding time,” he stated.
“So within the Tour, say, if I need to be one of the best helper doable and take no dangers, I’ll simply concentrate on staying protected. I keep in mind 2021 once we began in Brittany it was completely loopy – so we’ll see what this 12 months is like, too.”
Finding consistency
Yet for each objectives – the climbing domestique position and the ‘free electron’ place – Kuss is aware of that fairly other than having prime type, to function successfully he wants way more steady situation than he was in a position to take pleasure in in 2024. So the query of how he manages that’s one which could be very a lot entrance and centre of his 2025 present targets.
It’s price remembering although, that , Kuss’ rollercoaster 2024 season was by no means helped by COVID-19, both, wrecking his possibilities of collaborating within the Tour.
However, his promising victory within the Vuelta a España warm-up race in Burgos in August did something however then culminate in additional success in Spain, along with his most notable experience within the Grand Tour he dominated two years in the past arguably approaching the stage to Cordoba, the place he performed an important position chasing down a number of late breaks for teammate Wout van Aert.
But if being a prime domestique was evidently inside his energy – as has been the case so usually – final September, issues went so badly for Kuss on the Vuelta GC entrance that after two weeks of racing, his title defence had already gone up in flames.
So what went improper in 2024 that should go proper in 2025? “I feel my stage was fairly good final 12 months at sure moments however I did not have consistency in any respect,” he says.
“Some days it was good, others it was removed from that. Nowadays in biking, you want every day and every week to construct on, as a result of when you miss slightly bit then it exhibits instantly within the races – except you could have loopy abilities like some guys.”
Kuss crew chief Jonas Vingegaard is one such standout determine after all. And because the American factors out, the Dane’s capability to shine to the purpose of ending second in a Tour de France final season regardless of the brutal setback of his Itzulia crash was testomony to that – and to how a lot he might maybe shut the hole on Pogačar in 2025.
“It’s going to be actually thrilling. He can take a number of confidence from final 12 months’s tour coming to the race with lower than supreme preparation,” Kuss says. “He’s already doing actually wonderful performances.
“We understand how good Pogačar and the opposite guys are, however Jonas is absolutely centered on doing his finest and we’re centered on seeing how we are able to do issues in a different way or enhance on the issues we already do nicely.
“But you do not have to reinvent something. We simply have to concentrate on being there, being constant, having enjoyable collectively and having the correct motivation.”
Vingegaard could also be working on one other stage, then, however again within the realm of extra peculiar mortals, Kuss himself has needed to construct up very carefully for the season.
“I completed straight after the Vuelta however I did not take an excessive amount of break day in comparison with the 12 months earlier than, for example, so I obtained again into coaching,” he defined “Not doing something particular however simply being constant and increase a greater base than I had in 2024, which is what I used to be lacking in the beginning of the 12 months.”
“It wasn’t one of the best season for me however till then I’d all the time had fairly good years, not a lot unhealthy luck or sickness, so I used to be completely happy to win not less than one race. It was a disgrace to overlook the Tour however not yearly is an upward trajectory. You simply must be taught to roll with the unhealthy luck or regular setbacks once they occur.”
That explicit lesson, perhaps, is Kuss’ key takeaway from 2024: that even if you end up seemingly transferring steadily in the direction of the top of your profession, there’s truly nothing to cease the ascent in the direction of better success turning awry, not less than within the short-term.
But as Kuss says, too, when he isn’t been within the limelight is strictly when he is turned in his finest performances, and you may argue that he is now again in that place once more.
So, after the challenges of 2024, it might nicely be that in 2025 – regardless of going briefly again below the radar – the American will but discover himself crossing the end strains of races just like the Vuelta subsequent September on a much more upbeat be aware as soon as once more.