As Wout van Aert powered throughout the end line in Cordoba to say his second stage in 5 days on the Vuelta a España, his teammate Sepp Kuss may very well be seen behind the small lead group, too, punching his arm within the sky in celebration.
And whereas the American mentioned afterwards that Van Aert’s stage 7 victory felt like a triumph to him, his personal contribution to his win had not been a small one, both.
After a prolonged drive first by one other Visma-Lease A Bike man Edoard Affini after which by Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe to the highest of the only real climb of the day, the late Alto del 14%, Kuss discovered himself alone on the summit with Van Aert within the group of some 20 riders.
Rather than grasp again within the mini-peloton, although, as many GC riders would have performed, the reigning Vuelta champion hit the entrance to play a vital function on the run-in to Van Aert’s victory.
On the descent and flat run again to Cordoba, he did so by placing in some huge turns to carry again late attacker Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates) and hold the remainder of the entrance group below management.
Kuss defined later that it had been “a suffer-fest” to do such exhausting work so late within the stage, and the temperatures hovering to 40 levels once more within the Spanish south. His mild climber’s construct certainly made it even harder for him to drag again Soler. But after the end, his delight at contributing to Van Aert’s second Vuelta success was palpable, too.
“We all the time had this stage in thoughts for Wout, however we knew it might be exhausting, particularly with the tempo on the final climb,” Kuss instructed a small group of reporters after the stage.
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“But after we noticed he was nonetheless there, I knew he was on a very good day, so I attempted to maintain issues collectively. It was a suffer-fest to drag Soler again, nevertheless it looks like a victory for me too, it was very nice to be there with Wout.”
When Soler had been caught following a 16km chase and with the entrance group nearly within the end metropolis, Kuss confirmed that he had been afraid that there can be assaults and admitted that he perhaps made “a minor error by slowing down a bit and asking different guys to drag.
“In such small teams, there are all the time going to be assaults. But Wout is cool and sharp sufficient to know which of them to observe.”
Van Aert, talking shortly after rushing to the win from the group consisting largely of GC favourites, was fast to reward Kuss for his very important contributions over the closing 25km.
“On the highest, I discovered myself alone with Sepp Kuss within the entrance group, so it was actually troublesome to handle, however Sepp did a tremendous job. I don’t know if folks realise what it’s like if you’re under 60kg and also you try this sort of pull on the flat. I had goosebumps on the wheel and I simply wished to complete it off, so it is a actually massive one.
“In our staff, it’s not solely about profitable however about performing as a staff and making difficult plans. Part of that’s that everyone dares to sacrifice himself for the others. The defending champion of this race pulling for you is a big instance of our staff philosophy and due to that, I’m so proud.”
Kuss could have been a bit of out of his ingredient within the Classics-style finale however, as he mentioned, he had the perfect teammate to each shut down the strikes that wanted controlling after which go for the win.
But, come this weekend, because the race hits the mountains of Andalucía – together with the three first-category climbs of Sunday’s stage 9, Kuss will likely be again on way more acquainted terrain – and sure trying to assault for himself.