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The defending champion of the Vuelta a España got to work for Wout van Aert on Friday.
Sepp Kuss may be a Grand Tour winner leading one of the best teams in the world as he tries to defend his title at the Vuelta a España, but that doesn’t mean he’s forgotten who he was before he took the red jersey a year ago. On Friday, he showed the world he’s still the old Sepp Kuss who can be relied upon as one of the sport’s best teammates.
“In our team, it’s not just about winning, it’s about performing as a team,” said Wout van Aert after Kuss helped him to his second stage win at the 2024 Vuelta. “That means everyone daring to sacrifice themselves for the others.”
Van Aert, chasing stages on his Vuelta debut, was the pre-race favourite for Stage 7, which included a steep climb towards the end of the day – perfect for clearing the less versatile sprinters from the field and putting Van Aert in a position to overtake the survivors. Everything seemed to be going to plan for Van Aert and Visma-Lease a Bike until Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates) rode away from the thinned field alone on the descent of the climb.
With other sprinters already out of the race, those riders’ teams had little incentive to chase him. Race director Ben O’Connor’s Decathlon-AG2R la Mondiale team put in some effort, but not enough to catch Soler. Van Aert’s hopes of a second stage win, and the maximum green jersey points that would come with it, were in jeopardy – but he still had a teammate in the group. That teammate happened to be the defending overall Vuelta champion, but luckily for the Belgian star, Kuss was not averse to slipping back into the role of domestique he had played so admirably for riders such as Jonas Vingegaard and Primož Roglič in recent years.
Kuss did much of the work in pushing the pace on the descent, and even as the road flattened out in the final 10km, he kept his head down and started to score points at the front. Soler made him work hard, but Kuss pulled the peloton back to the attacker at the end with just under 4km to go, putting in a big effort that the rest of his general classification rivals could easily follow.
A few minutes later, Van Aert made his commitment clear and took the sprint victory.
“When I saw that the group was still very small and Wout was still there, I knew he was having a good day,” Kuss said afterwards. “I took the lead and tried to keep everyone together. That wasn’t easy. It was a tough fight to catch Soler, but it was more than worth it.”
For his part, Van Aert was duly grateful after his victory, spending several moments celebrating with Kiss at the finish line in Córdoba and then quickly mentioning the help the American had provided in his post-race interview.
“I was determined to finish it,” he said. “I have to thank Sepp more than anyone else for his incredible work at the top. I don’t think people realise what it means when you weigh 60 kilos and do moves like that on the flat.”
While it’s not unusual for an overall leader to make an effort to help a teammate in a stage chase, as perhaps most famously did when Bradley Wiggins led Mark Cavendish on the Champs-Élysées, it’s not particularly common. It’s the kind of move that’s sure to earn the rider making the effort the recognition of his team – and so leading from the front isn’t the worst way to do it. After all, Van Aert is set to have a free ride this Vuelta. Given the teamwork he received from Kuss on Friday, perhaps we’ll see the Tour de Alpe d’Huez stage winner repay the favor later in the race.
Van Aert was undoubtedly aware of the significance of this development and was grateful.
“The fact that the reigning Vuelta winner is sacrificing himself for me today is a perfect example of our philosophy,” said Van Aert. “The team was fantastic today.”
Whether Kuss will continue to play the role of domestique occasionally and whether Van Aert will be inclined to do so in the future remains to be seen. At least Visma has given us a demonstration of team unity after delivering one of the more dramatic – and entertaining – performances of theUnity recently at this very race a year ago.
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