Defending Vuelta a España champion Sepp Kuss (Visma-Lease a Bike) fought laborious to remain in rivalry on the fraught finale of stage 8 of this 12 months’s race, however the American star lastly misplaced greater than a minute to stage winner Primoz Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe).
The US rider has now dropped to six:22 down on general chief Ben O’Connor (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale), and trails Roglič by 2:32.
In a press release on his staff’s web site, Kuss described what occurred when he and different riders have been caught behind a crash sparked on a pointy right-hand nook onto the ultimate climb at Sierra de Cazorla.
Kuss briefly regained contact with the remainder of the GC favourites, however then shed time after Roglič launched repeated assaults.
“I felt good and we have been effectively positioned as a staff for the ultimate climb”, Kuss mentioned. “In the start of the climb I bought held up by the crash, so I needed to chase. I nonetheless tried to rejoin the group of favourites, however sadly, that simply didn’t work out.”
Kuss’ teammate Edoardo Affini informed Eurosport that the defending champion had been appropriately positioned near the entrance, solely to fall sufferer of the pileup.
“He entered the climb appropriately positioned and within the entrance 15,” Affini mentioned. “But from what I may see [Alexandr] Vlasov [Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe] went down or had a mechanical, and Sepp was subsequent to him.
“Sepp touched the bottom briefly however he was rapidly again as much as the bunch once more.”
Kuss’ misfortune comes barely 24 hours after he was instrumental in serving to teammate Wout van Aert declare a second win within the Vuelta, virtually singlehandedly chasing down late breakaway Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates) on the entrance of a small group en path to Cordoba.
He was anticipated to be a key participant within the weekend’s mountains stage, however on day one at the least, the crash on stage 8 left him out of rivalry and off to a foul begin. It stays to be seen if stage 9 to Sierra Nevada is extra beneficial to Kuss as he battles to retain his GC choices going into the second and third weeks.
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