Sepp Kuss unable to repeat his fall 2023 performance: "He remains a leader, but in other scenarios"

In late 2023, the question loomed like a big question over the upcoming 2024 cycling season: Will Sepp Kussbe reaffirm his position as Visma | Lease a Bike's leader after his Vuelta victory? For now, the answer seems to be no, especially after his rather anonymous Tour of Spain a good month ago. How should the American continue with the Dutch top team? Mathieu Heijboer elaborates on that.

Is Kuss a one-hit wonder? Heijboer doesn't think so. In conversation with Rouleur, he elaborates on his pupil's season and future. In doing so, he does indicate that Kuss benefits from a particular type of role assignment. "We’ll definitely see him chasing general classifications in the future, but always in the function of the team. Sepp functions best as being one of the guys, one of the leaders, but not the sole leader."

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Heijboer lists reasons for mediocre autumn Kuss

"He enjoys being the last guy for Jonas [Vingegaard], or for example on the day to Cordoba [in the Vuelta] when he controlled the stage for Wout [van Aert], that was something that gave him a lot of joy and pleasure. But he’s not a guy only wanting to support – he also wants to chase his own ambitions. The best thing for Sepp is a strategy with two leaders. Originally, the idea was to do this in the Vuelta together with Cian Uijtdebroeks."

"We did go into the Vuelta with both Sepp and Cian fighting for GC, but the reality is Cian didn’t have the level, and Sepp, as defending champion, was our only GC guy after a few stages. We do think the long season of 2023 with three Grand Tours, the harmed build-up during the Critérium du Dauphiné, and missing the Tour are the real reasons why Kuss didn’t perform as hoped."

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Kuss improves with combo Tour-Vuelta and wants to do it again in future

Not stable, that was mostly the trend in Kuss' Vuelta performance. And that was partly due to the corona infection in the Dauphiné. That lasted much longer than thought and hoped. "It bothered him a lot, and even in the Vuelta build-up he still had some issues with coughing and his lungs. He was vulnerable, let's say. Before, he’s always ridden the Vuelta with the Tour in his legs, and that works for him."

That leaves the question of whether Kuss might have fallen victim to hefty expectations after all. On the contrary, his trainer sees a different signal, although he points to the uncertain future. "But Sepp has a stable personality. He hasn’t shown signs that he didn’t like it or couldn’t handle the pressure, but for sure it was a different situation for him going into the season as a Grand Tour winner with some expectation, as well as the contract renewal during the winter. Some things changed, the situation was different for him, but you’ll have to ask him if it really bothered him."

In the end, Heijboer can't ignore it either, at Visma | Lease a Bike they expected more. "For sure, we maybe hoped for more results from him, but in hindsight we wouldn’t do anything different. I’m still convinced he can do good GCs – it’s not suddenly that now things look totally different. We cherish this experience, learn from it, and do better,” the trainer said.