Sepp Kuss stunned by Brennan's Vuelta exploits: 'He never gets tired'

Brennan delivered again on stage 17, beating Jordi Meeus and Magnus Cort in the bunch sprint to take Visma’s tally to seven stage victories at this Vuelta.

For Kuss, who has spent much of his career in teams accustomed to winning Grand Tours and their biggest stages, the scale of Visma’s success has still been striking.

“It’s really cool,” Kuss told Eurosport after the finish in Seville. “To have most of them coming from a guy that is in his first Grand Tour.”

Brennan has been the revelation of this Vuelta. Still riding his first three week race, he has shown little sign of fading as the race has moved deep into its final week.

“He’s really calm. He never gets tired,” Kuss said. “He goes uphill well, he sprints well. He’s just a big talent. And he likes to race his bike. You can see that in the way he rides.”

The victories have not simply been the product of Brennan’s finishing speed. Visma again committed heavily to controlling stage 17, with Wout van Aert guiding Brennan through the finale before the Briton launched his winning sprint.

Kuss was keen to highlight the work being done away from the television cameras, particularly by the riders tasked with controlling the breakaway day after day.

“We all really believe in each other and everybody’s happy to do the work or do their part,” he said. “Especially the guys that have been pulling all day for all these stage wins. Hats off to them because it’s been super hard.”

There may yet be more to come. With the 32.1km individual time trial to Jerez de la Frontera next on the programme, Kuss pointed to Bruno Armirail and Van Aert as Visma’s options for another stage victory.

After that, the mountains return, and Kuss himself could have a more prominent role.

“Tomorrow in the TT we have Bruno, we have Wout,” he said. “And then in the mountain stages I’ll see what I can do. For now it’s just nice to be a part of already so many stage wins.”

Seven victories already represent a historic Vuelta for Visma, but with opportunities in both the time trial and the mountains still to come, the team may not be done winning yet.