'I need a beer' - Kuss toasts birthday on Bola del Mundo as Vingegaard seals Vuelta

It was only two years ago that Sepp Kuss (Visma | Lease a Bike), the ultimate climbing domestique, did the near unthinkable and won the Vuelta a España, standing atop the podium alongside his two teammates Jonas Vingegaard and Primož Roglič. 

The American’s performance on Saturday’s stage to Bola del Mundo was a sharp reminder of his climbing prowess, finishing 2nd behind his team leader Jonas Vingegaard (Visma | Lease a Bike), with the Dane securing the general classification. Not a bad day's work on what was Kuss’s 31st birthday, who himself moved up a position in the standings to 7th, which is set to be the second-best Grand Tour finish of his career.

"It was a great stage, a super-hard last stage as we expected,” said a satisfied Kuss to Eurosport atop the Bola del Mundo climb. "We knew that UAE would go for it, and they set a really strong pace all day, but Jonas was really good on the last part of the course. We had still a lot of guys in that select group, so it was really nice for the whole team, everyone contributed so much.”

Heading into stage 20, the gap between Vingegaard and João Almeida sat at 44 seconds, leaving an element of jeopardy considering the brutal nature of the final ascent to Bola del Mundo. 

"It was really steep and a really rough road. It was hard to climb out of the saddle in parts. You feel the steepness more when it's so rough," explained Kuss, who saw his teammate Vingegaard make an explosive move in the saddle with 1.5km remaining, to which nobody could respond on such savage gradients.

"Jonas chose a good moment to go, and I just tried to slow things down behind. It was impressive to see,” said Kuss.

Kuss was also asked if the team ever felt threatened about the prospect of losing the red jersey with the GC still finely poised. "It’s hard to say. For sure, you always have some hard moments out there, when you feel the legs more than usual, but with a stage like this, it comes down to the last steep climb. We didn't expect anyone to do anything too out of the box."

Vingegaard carries an advantage of 1:16 over João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) in 2nd, after a well-fought battle across the past three weeks, with the Dane picking up his third stage win on Saturday. Meanwhile Kuss and fellow American teammate Matteo Jorgenson are set to join their leader in the top 10 in 7th and 10th, respectively.

Tom Pidcock is set to round out the podium, currently 3:11 behind the race leader, ahead of Sunday’s procession to Madrid, where the Dane will be crowned a Grand Tour champion for the third time in his career, and first since the 2023 Tour de France.

For Kuss, the celebrations are likely well underway with the 31-year-old admitting at the finish, “ I need a beer, champagne doesn’t sound good. Just a good Estrella with some chips.”