Sepp Kuss tried to go for glory on stage 19 of the Tour de France to the Alpe d'Huez, but faded under the incessant attacks from his breakaway companions, who ultimately could not hold off a hard-charging race leader Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates). However, the Visma-Lease a Bike climber is already eyeing Saturday's second consecutive stage to the famous climb as another chance.
Kuss was part of another massive breakaway that went clear in the early kilometres of the 127.9km stage 19 from Gap to l'Alpe d'Huez, and survived deep into the finale before losing touch with Lenny Martinez (Bahrain Victorious) and Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost). He finished fourth, 1:14 off the pace of the stage winner, Pogačar.
"It was a hard day, but I had fun out there," Kuss said in an interview with Wielerflits.nl. "I was happy that I could be at the front and try. We didn't have enough of a gap at the bottom of the climb to hold off Pogačar, but it was a good day.
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"At the bottom of the [last] climb I knew we would really have to work well together, but nobody wanted to commit to just setting a high pace, which is normal. You have to gamble a bit. The other guys were really strong, too, and they made really explosive attacks, and I had to ride my own rhythm back to them. But it was nice to give it a try."
Visma-Lease a Bike have been left fighting for stage wins after losing their team leader Jonas Vingegaard to a crash on stage 15 last Sunday, and Kuss is keen to try again on tomorrow's queen stage from Le Bourg d'Oisans to Alpe d'Huez via the Col de Sarenne.
"I'm already looking forward to tomorrow. It's a day that suits me better, so hopefully I still have some energy left," Kuss said. "I think it'll be a bit more of an endurance test than today with a lot of big, hard climbs. [The Col de Sarenne] looks like a tough one, a true alpine road, so it should be nice."
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