Jumbo-Visma manager Richard Plugge has lifted the lid on the team's Vuelta a España team leadership decision, saying that picking a winner from Sepp Kuss, Jonas Vingegaard, and Primož Roglič was "like choosing between your own children".
After several stages of letting the team's three leaders race amongst themselves, there was clarity on stage 18 to La Cruz de Linares as Vingegaard and Roglič worked for red jersey Kuss, who celebrated his first Grand Tour victory in Madrid on Sunday evening.
Plugge, who has overseen a team winning all three Grand Tours in the same season – a first in cycling history – told Het Laatste Nieuws that there was "no textbook solution" to the situation Jumbo-Visma raced into.
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"It was a great situation that we found ourselves in but at the same time one that never happened before and for which there was no textbook solution," he said.
"We had good discussions with all parties involved. We listened to everyone's opinion, put everything on the table, drew up a plan based on that, and asked if everyone was OK with it. As a team, we were true to our values and racing philosophy – winning together.
"[Picking one winner] is like choosing between your own children. We just wanted to win the Vuelta. With whom it made no difference," he added, before praising Jonas Vingegaard and Primož Roglič for putting their own red jersey ambitions aside. "It's great that two great people, based on their personal leadership, allowed him to do it.
"Though Kuss has, of course, earned it himself. Deserved is another bizarre word – in top sport, you don't 'deserve' anything, you go and get it yourself."
Plugge, who dismissed the rumours that Roglič – under contract to 2025 – might switch teams this off-season, said that his team can't stand still, despite achieving a level of domination never before seen in the sport.
He warned that rival teams continue to strengthen and talked about one of the few objectives that the team didn't manage to achieve in 2023.
"The competition doesn't stay still," Plugge said. "Bahrain Victorious had a strong ride here. Lidl-Trek are strengthening. Ineos Grenadiers will be back. UAE Team Emirates are doing well. Soudal-QuickStep are also on the right track. We have to stay sharp.
"[Jumbo-Visma DS] Merijn Zeeman and I are evaluating what we can learn from this Vuelta to do even better next year. We owe it to ourselves to look in the mirror because before you know it you will be overtaken.
"Our only objective that we didn't achieve this year was winning the Tour of Flanders or Paris-Roubaix," he added. "There's still a lot to be done. This is a very nice 'crown' on a decade of hard work, but I'm not going to sit back now. We have drawn up a major plan towards 2030. There's room for even more crowns."
Plugge also took time to talk about Remco Evenepoel, the defending champion and at the midway point of this year's race the main rival for Jumbo-Visma's triumvirate. The Belgian suffered a collapse on stage 13 to the Col du Tourmalet, removing the only real barrier to a Jumbo-Visma overall victory.
He'd go on to claim the mountain classification in addition to three stage wins, while Plugge said he'd love to talk to Evenepoel to figure out what happened on the Tourmalet, while also opining that – in spite of his 2022 Vuelta win – he hasn't yet beaten top-level competition in a Grand Tour.
"In Barcelona, I took Ayuso, Almeida, Mas, Thomas, and Arensman into account. And Evenepoel, of course. The fact that he cracked on the Tourmalet simplified things," he said.
"I would love to work with him and talk about that. Then we might be able to formulate an answer. But I won't talk about that now.
"Evenepoel is one of the big stars of cycling and certainly the best one-day racer around. But we don't yet know how he'll do in a Grand Tour with tough competition. Last year he won the Vuelta but Roglič dropped out.
"He'll also have to prove it against the Vinegegaards and Pogačars of this world. I sincerely hope he can continue to build on this foundation, though a three-week Grand Tour is something very unique. History has shown this many times."
