Sepp Kuss rules out Giro, looks to Tour and “stage wins or GC” for himself

Sepp Kuss has ruled out riding the Giro d’Italia next year as team leader – after winning La Vuelta this season – saying he would instead look to the Tour de France and La Vuelta.

He also believes it is better that Primož Roglič has left the Jumbo Visma team, adding he sees more chances for himself next year – for stage wins and targeting general classification.

Indeed, the main reason why he is ruling out the Giro is because the number of TTs in the race works against his ambition to target his own GC results; a sentiment we would not have heard from him before his breakthrough Vuelta win this year.

“I think next year maybe will be a bit too soon to do all three again, I think it’s definitely possible but for sure one year I’d like to do the Giro again,” he said at the ASO-owned ‘Tour de France Singapore Criterium’.

“But next year looks like too many TT kilometres and also I think it’s nice to go for the Tour and focus on that, whether that’s helping (his team) or whatever. And then going to the Vuelta, which is a really really important race to me. I wish there were more high mountains, but maybe another year.”

While he has previously shied away from a team leadership role, and even said at times he was not interested in leadership, his tone has now changed.

“Now there are more opportunities for me and even if there were more leaders, it is still okay for me because in the end, I just have to do my best and be there with the best,” he said.

“In the Vuelta there were two leaders and I could still have my chance, but now there’ll be more races that are more open for me. I can go for stages or go for the GC if it’s possible.”

Kuss also said Roglič had pushed Jumbo Visma towards the dominant position it is in now, be he believes it was better the Slovenian had moved on to Bora-hansgrohe.

“Primož brought our team to where it is now. He pushed everyone in the team to be their best and showed us that just doing well enough wasn’t sufficient,” Kuss said.

“I learned a lot from him, not necessarily from him teaching me things, but how he developed as a rider and what he learned. If your leader makes a mistake and you see him correct that mistake in a later race, you also learn from that.

“Seeing how he is as a racer, now, versus when he first started is really valuable and I would give him most of the credit from the riders side in terms of bringing the team to where it is now. But yeah, I think it’s better for everybody that he is on a different team. Now he can go to a team and feel that support that he feels that he deserves and has everyone behind him.”