Visma | Lease a Bike proud of "young lad" Hagenes and eager for Vuelta's final week with Kuss and Van Aert

Visma | Lease a Bike had high expectations for Sunday, but the Dutch team ended the day somewhat anonymously. In the Renewi Tour, Per Strand Hagenes and Christophe Laporte did not manage to compete for the stage win but still finished third and fourth in the overall standings. In the Vuelta a España, Sepp Kuss finished eighth on the brutally steep Cuitu Negru climb.

Kuss' performance now places him twelfth in the general classification, meaning he will need to climb a few more spots to return home with a satisfied feeling. However, he was pleased with his climbing performance on Sunday. "We had to wait until the steep final part of the climb. After that, it was every man for himself. The last few hundred meters were insane. In the footage from eleven years ago, it looked like Contador was sprinting up, so I thought it would be manageable. But I could barely move forward in the final section, it was so tough."

The American title defender (a title we would almost forget about while watching this Vuelta) says he is ready for the rest day. After that, Visma | Lease a Bike plans to go all out in the third week. "I'm still pretty far behind, but there are some hard stages coming up. We have nothing to lose, but I will have to choose the right moment, try something and hope the feeling is good," Kuss told the organizers.

Similar words came from Wout van Aert, who, wearing the green jersey, the polka dot jersey and with three stage wins to his name, isn't done shopping this Vuelta yet. "It's nice to head into the rest day wearing the polka dot jersey. I expected Vine (UAE Team Emirates, ed.) to become the new leader after today, so I am a bit surprised. At the start of the stage, I didn't feel great, so I decided to take it easy. In the final week, there are still a few stages where I want to go for the win. I will mainly focus on those, but we will also see what is possible in terms of the mountains classification."

Read more below the video.

Hagenes and Laporte make their mark in final stage of Renewi Tour

In the Renewi Tour, the overall victory went to Tim Wellens, and the stage win to Arnaud De Lie. However, thanks to an excellent day by Per Strand Hagenes, Visma | Lease a Bike managed to finish third on the final podium. "I'm very happy with this. Thanks in part to control work by Tosh and Julien (Van der Sande and Vermote, ed.), I ended up in a nice leading group. When the strongest riders from the peloton joined our group, I tried to follow as long as possible. In the end, that gave me third place in the general classification," Hagenes stated in a press release.

Team leader Arthur van Dongen is pleased with the Norwegian's performance, as well as Laporte's fourth place. "Beforehand, our goal was to reach the podium in the final classification. That we succeeded with a young guy like Per gives a very good feeling. Christophe unfortunately didn't have the legs to compete in the final, otherwise there might have been more. Nevertheless, we are very satisfied with the third and fourth places in the general classification and Christophe's second place in the fourth stage."