Sepp Kuss rides Tour de France with chipped front tooth
Sepp Kuss turned heads at the Tour de France for an unusual reason this weekend. The American climber appeared at the start on Friday with a visible chip in one of his front teeth.
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The Visma | Lease a Bike rider displayed none of the usual signs of a crash. With no visible wounds, dressings or other injuries, the sudden change to his familiar smile quickly raised questions.
Kuss had enjoyed a solid day in the mountains on the stage featuring the Col du Tourmalet. He reached the finish alongside riders including Isaac del Toro, Remco Evenepoel and Paul Seixas.
His leader Jonas Vingegaard, however, suffered a serious blow to his Tour hopes, conceding 2:38 to Tadej Pogačar and falling 2:42 behind the Slovenian in the general classification.
The chipped tooth became a talking point the following day when teammate Victor Campenaerts mentioned it in his daily Tour vlog. Kuss laughed off the incident, joking that sometimes the bullet bites back and suggesting it might at least spare him a few interview requests.
Velo later reported that Visma | Lease a Bike had ruled out a crash as the cause. According to the team, a crown fitted after a previous incident became dislodged when Kuss took a drink from his bidon during the Tourmalet stage.
It is unclear whether Kuss will make a brief visit to the dentist during the rest day or wait until the Tour is over.
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