The bike race across Spain ended in an unusual way. Very rarely, one would say never, do the greatest races end with the triumph of the intended helper. The strongly established “gregario” American Sepp Kuss succeeded in this.
When he took the leader’s shirt on the Spanish cycling circuit already in the first week of the race, many people still thought that the balance of power in the Jumbo Visma team would be put in the right place, but after a very well run time trial, Sepp Kuss took a big step towards ultimate success.
In the end, the team management led by Richard Plugge even decided that the expected captains Jonas Vingegaard and Primož Roglič should submit to the American. Willy-nilly, the intended captains of the Dutch team also had to submit to this decision Jonas Vingegaardwho previously won the Tour for the second time and the winner of the Giro Primož Roglič.
Jumbo Visma, with another Slovene, Jan Tratnik, also made history, because so far no team has managed to win all three Grand Tours in one year. In Spain, at the 78th edition of the Vuelta, the opponents did not have much of a chance and only picked up the crumbs that fell from the richly lined Jumbo Visma table.
After a long period, there was no Spaniard on the final podium in Madrid. Young people Juan Ayuso, who turned 21 in the last week of the Vuelta, gained Spanish prestige and indicated that he could soon become the strongest cyclist from the Iberian Peninsula. However, they completely failed the Spanish exam at Ineos. Last year’s winner, the Belgian, is undoubtedly the big eighth seed Remco Evenepoel, who had only one bad day in three weeks and was far from the desired places in the final classification. Remco solved it all with at least daily wins.
Has the Tour’s train for Roglič at the bees left yet?
The reporting team that followed the Vuelta on the airwaves draws a line under the last three-week race of the season. Television journalist David Črmelj points out that the red shirt was convincingly worn by Kuss, the radio commentator Igor Tominec believes that relations in Jumbo Visma are broken. In Spain, they were still in Vala 202 Luka Dolar and Dare Rupar.
“When you have captains, you can send someone on the run, the rivals cannot cover all the attacks, and so Roglič would also win the Tour one day in this team, but I think the train has already left and the Slovenian champion will look for other options. But let’s be surprised and how the story will unfold in the coming months.” is the first radio journalist for cycling Tominec is closer to the opinion that Roglič is closer to leaving than staying after the events of the last Tour of Spain.
“But where. Sepp Kuss is an extremely good hillclimber and was extremely good at this year’s Vuelta and was therefore able to defend the lead. An exception that can be repeated every so many years,” Črmelj is sure that Kuss’s victory will not lead to a trend where assistants regularly get big wins even in three-week races.
Source: Rtvslo
