'I had nothing to lose' - Kuss moves up to fifth at Vuelta with daring last-ditch raid

Sepp Kuss made a late charge to move up six places to fifth overall at the Vuelta a España after a daring long-range attack on stage 20 to Collado del Alguacil.

At one point, there were even shades of the corresponding stage of last year’s Giro d’Italia about the afternoon, as Kuss, just like his old Visma Lease a Bike teammate Simon Yates, had an energised Wout van Aert for company off the front. 

That wasn’t the only parallel. Behind, Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) was locked in a tense standoff with Felix Gall (Decathlon CMA CGM), who was occupying the Isaac del Toro role.

By the foot of the final ascent, Kuss had more than five minutes in hand on the red jersey group, and he was closing in on a podium finish. The American would pay for his earlier efforts as the climb drew on, but he would still place eighth on the stage, 4:35 down on breakaway winner Mikel Landa (Soudal Quick-Step). 

That was enough to lift him to fifth overall, 8:45 off Enric Mas (Movistar), who will win the Vuelta in Granada on Sunday.

“Hats off to the team: we had a plan and it was just like the stars aligning in every moment of the race and every single guy on the team had a part in it,” Kuss told Eurosport. 

The American began his onslaught with 100km to go on the first of two ascents of Puerto de El Purche. Kuss would go again on the second time up the climb, and that effort would carry him clear of the red jersey group.

Aided by Visma teammates including Van Aert, Matthew Brennan and Jørgen Nordhagen, he would push out his advantage over the GC group on the following Puerto del Duque. 

“That’s how we race, as a team, that’s our identity, I guess,” Kuss said. “It was just amazing being part of it. I had goosebumps the whole day. It was just fun to go out and race. I mean, most of this race I’ve kind of had a bittersweet feeling, I’ve just not been able to race like I wanted or everything played out in a way that different than you expected. But today I really enjoyed it, it was like a playground out there with all these steep climbs. I was just happy to be part of the team effort.”

Kuss looked to be in the mix for a podium spot after a fine start to the Vuelta, but he lost ground on the summit finishes in the second week. On Saturday, Kuss’ primary aim was to try to win the stage, but while he fell short in that endeavour, he succeeded in moving into fifth overall. It will mark his highest Grand Tour finish outside of his overall victory at the 2023 Vuelta. 

“From the days before, we knew that I wouldn’t be able to just jump in the early break,” Kuss said. “The plan was to go for the stage win, but you can never control the gap the break has. Already before the first time on Purche, it was a really big gap, but I had nothing to lose. I knew I had a bunch of strong teammates ahead. I just went all in on the first time and the guys were amazing, it never felt like I was alone.”