Sepp Kuss was second on the Bola del Mundo mountain finish at the Vuelta a España and so the first to congratulate his Visma-Lease a Bike leader and teammate Jonas Vingegaard on his stage victory, and what is now a certain overall victory for the Dane in Madrid on Sunday.
Kuss and Vingegaard hugged, with the Dane saying "thank you Seppy" before they posed for celebratory photographs beyond the finish line. Kuss then joined in the team celebrations with fellow US rider Matteo Jorgenson and admitted he was ready for a celebratory beer.
After three weeks of racing, Vingegaard has now won three stages and will ride into Madrid with a lead of 1:16 on João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates-XRG).
"It was a great stage, a super-hard last stage as we expected," Kuss said of Visma-Lease a Bike's strategy.
"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 still had a lot of guys in that select group, so it was really nice for the whole team, everyone contributed so much.
"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 the last steep climb. We didn't expect anyone to do anything out of the box."
Thanks to his second place on the stage, Kuss moved up to seventh overall, at 7:45, and appeared to get stronger in the final week of the Vuelta.
On stage 20 he was able to watch Vingegaard's attack with admiration and then protect him by marking and dissuading the Dane's GC rivals.
"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," Kuss said of the narrow, concrete road to the Bola del Mundo summit.
"Jonas chose a good moment to go and I just tried to slow things down behind. It was impressive to see."
The Visma-Lease a Bike riders and staff hugged in celebration at the Bola del Mundo summit and at the team bus parked a few kilometres below. They have been locked in a tense battle with UAE Team Emirates-XRG battle but finally secured overall success.
Kuss also rode with Vingegaard at the Tour de France and so is ready to celebrate in Madrid with more than just a glass of champagne.
"I need a beer, champagne doesn't sound good," the American joked. "I just a good Estrella with some chips."
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