Kuss maintains Visma’s perfect mountain record with Giro queen stage win

Sepp Kuss (Visma | Lease a Bike) climbed to victory from the breakaway on stage 19 of the Giro d’Italia in Alleghe as Jonas Vingegaard (Visma | Lease a Bike) moved one step closer to overall success.

Kuss made his mark on the queen stage on the final climb to Piani di Pezzè, distancing his breakaway companions and bridging across to sole leader Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) with 2.2km remaining. 

The American immediately countered the Italian on the steep slopes with no response and soloed to his first Giro stage win 0:13 ahead of Derek Gee-West (Lidl-Trek) and 0:36 over Ciccone in third. 

In his sixteenth Grand Tour, Kuss becomes the 116th male rider to complete the Grand Tour stage win set on what proved to be another majorly successful stage for Visma | Lease a Bike. 

The race leader, Vingegaard, powered up the final climb to finish 0:39 behind his teammate Kuss, alongside Felix Gall (Decathlon CMA CGM).

Stage 20, featuring two ascents of the first-category climb to Piancavallo, stands between Vingegaard and the finale in Rome, where he hopes to pull on the maglia rosa and secure the Giro on debut.

Despite the disappointment of being caught on the final climb, courtesy of the points he gained, Ciccone moved into the lead of the mountains classification, establishing a healthy buffer over Vingegaard with just one final mountain stage remaining.

After numerous early attempts, the day’s breakaway was properly established on the slopes of the Passo Duran.

On the lower slopes of the Passo Duran with 100km to go, Damiano Caruso (Bahrain-Victorious) triggered the move, prompting an immediate counter-attack from Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek), Chris Harper (Pinarello-Q36.5), and Alberto Bettiol (XDS Astana).

Near the summit, a high-calibre chase group bridged across, swelling the break to include Enric Mas, Lorenzo Milesi, Einer Rubio (Movistar), Jardi van der Lee (EF Education-EasyPost), Embret Svestad-Bårdseng (Netcompany-Ineos), Jan Hirt (NSN), Giulio Pellizzari (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), Sepp Kuss (Visma | Lease a Bike), Wout Poels (Unibet Rose Rockets), and Johannes Kulset (Uno-X Mobility).

Behind them, Tudor launched a dangerous raid featuring Will Barta, Florian Stork, Michael Storer, and Mathys Rondel, with Derek Gee-West (Lidl-Trek) latching on. Meanwhile, Visma | Lease a Bike controlled the peloton, focusing on their own tempo.  

Ciccone claimed maximum mountain points atop the Duran, leading the Storer/Gee-West counter-attack by 40 seconds and the maglia rosa group by 1:20. The two lead groups merged with 82km to go on the Coi climb, pushing their advantage over the peloton to 2:30. Sensing an opportunity, Ciccone and Rubio immediately accelerated away from their companions, riding clear into the lead.

Ciccone claimed more mountain points before the duo were regathered ahead of the Cima Coppi of the 2026 Giro, the Passo Giau. 

On the Passo Giau, Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe took control in the peloton on the lower slopes. Ben Zwiehoff’s brutal pace-setting whittled the maglia rosa group down to fewer than 15 riders before Visma re-established themselves at the front. 

Pellizzari attacked with 52.1km remaining from the breakaway and was matched by Ciccone and Rubio, though the latter eventually lost the wheel of the two Italians. Kuss jumped from the chasers and bridged to the leaders, as Rubio tagged on to the wheel of the American. All the while, Gee-West, Storer, Caruso and Hirt also worked their way across.

Ciccone claimed the Cima Coppi, while the maglia rosa group included just 10 riders and was 2:25 behind the breakaway at the summit, Vingegaard, Bart Lemmen and Davide Piganzoli (Visma | Lease a Bike), Felix Gall, Gregor Mühlberger and Johannes Staune-Mittet (Decathlon CMA CGM), Thymen Arensman and Egan Bernal (Netcompany-Ineos), Jai Hindley (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), and Afonso Eulálio (Bahrain-Victorious). Callum Scotson (Decathlon CMA CGM) and Svestad-Bårdseng also took significant turns on the front of the peloton on the run-in to the final climb.

Gee-West won the Red Bull KM with 32km to go ahead of Storer and Rubio, much to the displeasure of the latter, who led the Red Bull KM overall. Rubio then outsprinted Ciccone, Gee-West’s teammate, to take maximum points on the second category Passo Falzarego with 28km remaining, which frustrated Ciccone. 

Ciccone used the frustration as an opportunity to attack the long descent and the Italian went solo, building an advantage of over a minute at the foot of the final climb up Piani di Pezzè.

Pellizzari was first to push on from the chasers with 4.3km to go, with Kuss responding. Eulálio was distanced from the maglia rosa group, while Ciccone’s gap was dwindling as Kuss, Pellizzari and Gee-West closed in. Bernal was also in difficulty with 3.3km to go, as Gall attacked with 3.1km to go. 

Only Vingegaard held the wheel with Hindley a few metres behind as Arensman and Piganzoli suffered. 

Kuss attacked with 3km to go, distancing Gee-West and Pellizzari, and caught Ciccone with 2.2km remaining. He immediately countered Ciccone, who was simply unable to respond. 

Pellizzari returned to the maglia rosa group before the flamme rouge alongside Hindley, pushing the pace with Arensman having been distanced. 

Up front, Kuss took the victory, while Vingegaard moved one step closer to Giro glory in an excellent queen stage for Visma | Lease a Bike.