Champagne problems: Jumbo-Visma must manage the enhanced desires of Kuss alongside Vingegaard and Roglič

A hive of Jumbo-Visma staff, sponsors and VIPs swarmed the Spanish capital on Sunday as Sepp Kuss led home a 1-2-3 at the Vuelta a España with Jonas Vingegaard and Primož Roglič completing the team’s podium dominance.

Among the contingent stood Merijn Zeeman, the mastermind behind the squad’s incredible season. Zeeman had not been at the final week of the Vuelta but arrived in Madrid to see the fruits of his labour seal race into the history books.

As he stood near the finish line, watching proudly as his riders completed a Grand Tour hat trick, the sports director was clearly caught up with the emotion of it all.

“This will never happen again,” he told GCN as he contemplated the fact that Jumbo-Visma were on the cusp of becoming the first men’s team to win all three Grand Tours in a single season after Primož Roglič claimed the Giro d’Italia, Jonas Vingegaard won the Tour de France, and Sepp Kuss triumphed in the Vuelta a España.

“Since we really started to build the team in 2016 it was a dream to win the Tour de France. That didn't look realistic at all but to be in this place and win all three Grand Tours in one year and finish the last one 1-2-3, it’s beyond expectations and beyond everything. It’s unreal,” Zeeman said.

Unreal is right. Back in 2015, when the team reached rock bottom, they finished the season with just six wins. It took them until May of that year before they won their first race, a stage of the Tour of Yorkshire. The following season Roglič signed alongside Dylan Groenwegen, and the team’s victory tally jumped to 19.

Kuss joined two seasons later in 2018, but even Zeeman admitted that envisaging Kuss as a Grand Tour winner at that point was something of a stretch. 

“We scouted him, we tested him and of course he had really good potential but it’s difficult to predict what someone can achieve,” he said. “You look for certain physiological qualities, and do psychological tests, but then it’s still very difficult. The goal at first was to make him a good WorldTour rider at that time. We tried to make him a GC rider two years ago and that didn’t work out so well to be honest. With the strategy we have now it’s better for him. We raced it as a team and that worked out really well for him.”

Zeeman then produced his phone from his pocket and showed GCN a slide from a powerpoint presentation his squad had mustered up at the start of the year. It wasn’t the most glamorous or refined Powerpoint but few would argue that the team didn’t lack imagination or ambition.

“It was a goal but a super ambitious team back in 2016. In the end we took it step-by-step but when you see it on paper, winning the Giro, the Tour and the Vuelta, it looks unreal of course. With Primož going to the Giro the only goal was winning, with Jonas going to the Tour it would be super hard but then both came to the Vuelta with good preparation. We did it and it’s not sunk in yet.”

Crowded ambitions for 2024

Two days on from the Grand Tour triple and the realisation must have sunk in for Zeeman and his management team. The future looks bright for the team, but only time will tell as to whether they can maintain this level or that the chasing pack will catch them in the next twelve months.

Talk of dissension within the ranks was rife during the final week of the Vuelta a España, and while the team held it together when it mattered most the task facing Zeeman over the coming winter is huge. He must balance the ambitions of not two, but three, Grand Tour winners, and that’s before accounting for the desires of Wout van Aert and star sprinter Olav Kooij.

It’s improbable to imagine Vingegaard not targeting a third straight Tour de France, while Roglič has a justifiable case for selection next July given his 2023 season. As for Kuss, time will tell, but Zeeman did hint that the American could be deployed as a co-leader or plan-B next year. Super domestique duties will, however, be a factor for the American and not Roglič and Vingegaard.

“If we race like we did here in the Vuelta then Sepp can be a GC rider but it’s the same for Wilco Kelderman and Steven Kruijswijk," Zeeman said. "The best for Kuss is when we have more leaders and then tactically play it out like we have here. That will be the plan for the coming years.”

Before he turned his attention back to the race and a view of Kuss in red, GCN pointed out that the coming months would stretch Zeeman’s diplomacy and planning to new levels. "Yes I know, I know,” he laughed. “I’ll start working on that tomorrow."

The Vuelta a España may be over, but there's still plenty of time to catch up on any racing you might have missed, with on-demand coverage and highlights available on GCN+. As for news, standings and race reports, make sure to check out our Vuelta a España landing page.