Kuss heads for overall victory Burgos after time trial, Uijtdebroeks performance raises concerns for Vuelta time trials

In the team's post-race reaction, the Italian also spoke. "This was a good time trial. In the first part, I put a lot of energy into it. With the headwind, it was pretty tough, but I tried to take advantage of that as much as possible," said Affini, who finished second in a time trial for the second time this season, which was a bit annoying. "I thought the whole ride went well, but unfortunately, Jay was faster. He is the rightful winner. Of course, it's a shame I missed victory again, but I have nothing to blame myself for today." Affini fell short of winning the Italian time trial championship at the end of June.

The fact that Kuss retained the leader's jersey, however, compensated for Affini. The American climber, who will defend his title in the Vuelta an España next week, rode a solid time trial, keeping five seconds on Max Poole, the British rider of dsm-Firmenich PostNL. The final day is unlikely to bring significant differences at the classification's top. "We will do everything possible to get Sepp's leader's jersey over the line. It would be a nice crowning of our good week here in the Vuelta a Burgos," Affini concluded.

The team's other classification rider, Cian Uijtdebroeks, has not progressed in the time trial. Although the young Belgian put a lot of work into developing his time trial, he could not reap the rewards. After a more than fine intermediate time, Uijtdebroeks lost an enormous amount of time in the second part. Ultimately, he recorded a disappointing 71st time, almost two minutes behind Vine. Uijtdebroeks thus dropped from ninth to 26th place in the general classification.