Vingegaard remains silent on Alto de Foia, super domestique Kuss speaks out: "I didn’t have the legs"

Jonas Vingegaard started as the top favorite for the queen stage of the Tour of Algarve on Thursday, but the Danish Visma | Lease a Bike rider had to settle for sixth place atop the Alto de Foia. Vingegaard himself did not speak to the press after the race, but (intended) super domestique Sepp Kuss did, including to this site, on the Portuguese climb.  

Visma | Lease a Bike was the team that pushed the pace in the queen stage of the five-day Portuguese race. Loe van Belle controlled the race for most of the day and was later praised by sports director Arthur van Dongen for his efforts. Later, Wout van Aert and Tiesj Benoot significantly increased the tempo on two climbs before the finish, reducing the peloton to around forty or fifty riders.

The 'new' finish — coming from the opposite side — on the Alto de Foia allowed for an aggressive race, which Visma | Lease a Bike and Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe executed on the Pomba climb. However, Sepp Kuss and Wilco Kelderman were dropped earlier than expected, while Roglic lost Oier Lazkano early on, forcing Jan Tratnik to start working.

Ben Tulett, following Vingegaard's advice from the chasing group, then decided to join a breakaway group consisting of Jan Christen (UAE Emirates-XRG), Laurens De Plus (INEOS Grenadiers), Luca Vergalitto (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Remy Rochas (Groupama-FDJ), and Neilson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost). The Brit set up his leader well, but the situation changed for Visma | Lease a Bike when he got dropped.

This put Visma | Lease a Bike in a difficult position, forcing Vingegaard to make a move in the final kilometers, which he executed well. The Dane rode a strong final kilometer, limiting his losses, though João Almeida, António Morgado (UAE Emirates-XRG), and Picnic PostNL's Romain Bardet still finished ahead of him from the peloton. Christen won the stage from the breakaway, while Roglic finished ninth.

Read more below the video!

Kuss: "It's definitely a good race to get into the rhythm"

The press was expecting a statement from Visma | Lease a Bike’s leader after the stage, but Vingegaard ultimately decided not to appear. Kuss, however, gave a brief reaction as a rider from the Dutch team. "We had to be in a good position going into the penultimate climb from the descent, but that was already tough for me," he admitted.

"I just didn’t have the legs," the honest American explained. "What this means for the rest of the week? I don’t know. Today was today, and now we have two sprint stages and a time trial coming up. It’s definitely a good race to get back into the rhythm. When the race is as hard as it was today, that happens automatically. You have to push yourself and suffer to stay with the group. It was a tough day."

Vingegaard: "Others benefited from my work"

After cooling down (though it was already cold on the summit), Vingegaard eventually provided a statement. "The feeling was good, but I am disappointed with the result," the climber told his team’s website. "The team worked as planned. We had Ben up there in the finale, which was good tactically. Unfortunately, he was dropped and then I tried to chase the front group. I came close, but others benefitted from my work in the end. With stage 4 and 5 we still have everything to play for."

Read also

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