Vuelta a España: Something changed in Sepp Kuss and he was ready to fight for it, says Jumbo-Visma director

Marc Reef discusses a mentality shift in Kuss, as Primož Roglič and Jonas Vingegaard fall in line behind the American

18:18, Friday 15th September 2023

Daniel Benson

Editor in Chief

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Sepp Kuss, on the cusp of the biggest achievement of his career, met with family and friends after stage 19

The leadership polemic at Jumbo-Visma appears to have finally simmered to low heat after Jonas Vingegaard and Primož Roglič turned from GC threats to super domestiques for Sepp Kuss on stage 18 of the Vuelta a España, but according to directeur sportif Marc Reef, it was the American who led the change of approach within the team.

Until stage 18 it looked as though it was only a matter of time before Kuss’ slender lead in the Vuelta would be washed away as the bigger boys on the Jumbo-Visma playground set about dismantling the American’s red jersey fort with a string of attacks on their teammate in the mountains.

‘No fair’, cried X (formerly Twitter) with a fever pitch reached on stage 17 as Roglič and Vingegaard rode away from Kuss near the summit of the Angliru when there wasn’t a competitor from a rival team within sight. A wave of criticism from television pundits and fans on social media followed with vicious debates over loyalty, gifts or no gifts, cycling’s unwritten rules and a dash of popularity stakes thrown in for good measure.

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It’s still unclear what happened within the Jumbo-Visma camp on the evening of the Angliru stage with plenty of speculation as to what the riders truly discussed between themselves.

Whatever happened, there was a stark contrast in Jumbo-Visma’s tactics the following day with Roglič on point for Kuss over the penultimate climb before Vingegaard set tempo on the final ascent, later slipping back and allowing the American to buttress his slender lead with a few more seconds.

Throughout this, Jumbo-Visma has strained to demonstrate an all-for-one approach towards the public. Their task became all the harder when Roglič threw in a few mixed messages surrounding leadership at the conclusion of almost every key mountain stage and as Kuss’ lead began to dwindle, but Reef’s assertion over the nuance and the fact that no team has ever demonstrated such dominance in a Grand Tour is certainly fair.

“We were not just racing with three riders and there were still a lot of competitors for the podium and the victory and that’s the thing that we first need to tackle before we even look at how we’ll do it,” Reef told GCN.

“Sepp was also able to do a strong Angliru with being third and keeping the jersey but on the Angliru you can’t say at the start 'let's finish with the three of us'. It’s such a special climb and it’s 45 minutes of climbing. If you have one bad moment, especially at the end, you can lose everything and if you count on one guy then you can lose it,” he added.

Jumbo-Visma could have finished with three riders together on the Angliru though. While racing up mountains is often a tad more complicated than it looks on television, there was no threat to the team’s control once Juan Ayuso, Enric Mas and Mikel Landa had all been dispatched.

“To make a call when they’re all on the limit, and to say to stop, and wait, that’s not what we could do. We agreed to race on the Angliru with each other. Sepp said that on the radio. He did say that,” Reef argued.

“In the end, we’re in a very special situation. We’re firstly racing against our competitors and then we look at the situation. On stage 18 you could see what our intention was and what kind of sportsmen Primož and Jonas are. They can win big but they can also do something back for the guys who already did so much for them and did so much for them.”

An image nobody would have predicted ahead of the race, Jonas Vingegaard and Primož Roglič protect their leader, Sepp Kuss

But what changed on the evening of the Angliru? Did the senior domestiques with the team such as Robert Gesink and Dylan van Baarle stand up and ask for clarity? Did they force an open discussion that reflected the fact that just like Kuss they could one day ask to be repaid for all their loyalty and that the current Vuelta script that was unfolding before their eyes was an uncomfortable read?

“What changed was that the Angliru created a gap of around four minutes. That changed the situation and everyone agreed. Everyone is on board,” Reef said.

"It’s a special situation. It’s something that has never happened and it’s something that we worked really hard for but if you look at Jonas and Primož they are part of the best Grand Tour riders in the world, so you know that this could happen when you arrive at this race. But Sepp got there because of a race situation from earlier in the race when he got around three or four minutes. He’s in the shape of his life and also mentally something changed and he was ready to fight for it. That created this situation.”

There are two stages remaining, but should Kuss roll into Madrid as the overall winner, Jumbo-Visma can look back at a race they bossed from start to finish. Five stage wins (so far), the leader’s jersey, a clean sweep of the podium and three Grand Tours in a single season to complete a trilogy never seen before in men’s cycling. These are unprecedented times.

And although it turns out that no script is perfect, at least Jumbo-Visma are heading towards the right ending. Whether they arrived there on purpose or through tripping over their own feet is a debate that will rumble on for some years to come.

“We’re racing our race and people on the couch or on TV are allowed to think what they want but at the moment you have sportspeople in our team and we don’t want to take chances away from them. That’s what we agreed on, and that’s what we did. I think everyone can understand how special this situation is. We hope to bring it like this to Madrid,” Reef said.

Keep up to date with all of the latest racing news from the Vuelta a España on our dedicated race page, linked here.