{"id":39735,"date":"2022-06-30T23:25:28","date_gmt":"2022-07-01T05:25:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/kuss-jumbo-visma-ready-for-the-tour-de-france\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T02:51:31","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T08:51:31","slug":"kuss-jumbo-visma-ready-for-the-tour-de-france","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/kuss-jumbo-visma-ready-for-the-tour-de-france\/","title":{"rendered":"Kuss, Jumbo Visma ready for the Tour de France"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Sepp
Sepp Kuss finished fourth during Stage 17 of the 2020 Tour de France, showing the cycling world he is ready to chase more stage wins during the 2021 season.<\/span>Christophe Petit-Tesson\/Pool file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Durango cyclist Sepp Kuss will compete in his third Tour de France, and this year, Kuss and his Jumbo Visma teammates are going after the yellow jersey.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m looking forward to it,\u201d Kuss said. \u201cAt first, it felt like just another race, but at the team presentation with all of the fans, I could really feel the atmosphere. Now I\u2019m ready.\u201d<\/p>\n

The team presentation was held Wednesday in Copenhagen, Denmark, where the first stage will be held Friday. Kuss\u2019 teammate, Jonas Vingegaard, also is Danish, which added to the applause Jumbo Visma received.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a deafening roar,\u201d Kuss said. \u201cIt gave me goosebumps.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Durango's
Durango's Sepp Kuss, right, and his Team Jumbo-Visma teammates have their eyes focused on the yellow jersey at the Tour de France. (Courtesy Jumbo-Visma)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Vingegaard and Primoz Roglic will be the team\u2019s leaders in the Tour, and they have arguably the strongest supporting cast backing them up.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got a superstrong team, and it\u2019s really well balanced,\u201d Kuss said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got guys for flats, guys for cobble and guys for the mountains. Our two leaders are also two of the big favorites. It\u2019s nice to be on such a strong team because we can really look for all of the opportunities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tadej Pogacar of UAE Team Emirates has won the past two Tours and is a favorite again. Jumbo Visma, however, wants to dethrone him in this year\u2019s tour.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur biggest goal is to go for the yellow jersey and for the green jersey with Wout (Van Aert),\u201d Kuss said. \u201cIt\u2019s ambitious to go for two, but with the team we have, we can do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The yellow jersey will go to the general classification winner with the overall best time, and the green jersey goes to the points leader. Kuss said they\u2019ll choose when and where to invest their energy, but having Van Aert up the road chasing points can help the team strategically.<\/p>\n

\u201cWout is so versatile that he doesn\u2019t need the team to support him,\u201d Kuss said.<\/p>\n

Kuss\u2019 focus, meanwhile, is on the tour\u2019s mountain stages, which begin in the second week of the race.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn the big mountain stages, I want to be there as long as possible with Primoz and Jonas, hopefully to make a difference in the mountains,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Because mountain stages begin in the second week, Kuss will have more time to recover. In the Tour de Suisse June 12-19, Kuss was a few seconds out of the GC lead after the first four stages when the team had to withdraw from the competition.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to give (the GC) my best shot, but unfortunately me and a few others tested positive for COVID,\u201d Kuss said.<\/p>\n

He said he was sick for three days before slowly recovering.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a bit of a setback and a shame to leave that race, to miss a week of training and the hard stages in the Tour de Suisse,\u201d Kuss said.<\/p>\n

Kuss, however, feels like he\u2019ll be ready to help his team in the Tour de France.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy role is later in the race, so I have time to get back in the rhythm,\u201d he said. \u201cFor me, the first week is about getting in the rhythm, staying safe and to be ready for the second half of the race.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Sepp
Sepp Kuss celebrates as he crosses the finish line to win the 15th stage of the 2021 Tour de France. (AP Photo\/Christophe Ena)<\/span>Christophe Ena<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

And while Pogacar is the favorite, he\u2019s not unbeatable or the only threat.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s the most dominate GC rider in the world at the moment \u2013 his climbing is really strong. His time trials are really strong, and he\u2019s just consistently good, but we\u2019ve come close over the years and know it\u2019s possible to beat him,\u201d Kuss said. \u201cBut we also have rivals on other teams, so we can\u2019t focus on just one guy.\u201d<\/p>\n

The tour will begin with a 13.2K time trial on Friday in Copenhagen, followed by two flat stages that are 202.5 and 182 kilometers long.<\/p>\n

After a transfer day, the tour will resume in France with three hilly stages.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first week has lots of tricky stages with wind and cobblestone stages,\u201d Kuss said. \u201cYou can\u2019t win the race, but you can lose a lot then.\u201d<\/p>\n

The first mountain stage will be Stage 7 on July 8, followed by a hilly stage and another mountain stage before a rest day July 11.<\/p>\n

The next six stages will have two mountain stages, two hilly stages and two flat stages before another rest day July 18.<\/p>\n

The Tour will then have another hilly stage, two mountain stages and a flat stage before a 40.7K individual time trial in the penultimate stage July 23.<\/p>\n

The Tour de France will then conclude with Stage 21, a 116K flat that will finish in Paris on July 24.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a pretty balanced course,\u201d Kuss said. \u201cThere\u2019s something every day that\u2019s an obstacle.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last year, Kuss became only the 11th rider from the United States to win a stage at the Tour de France, and the first since Tyler Farrar in 2011.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis will be my third (tour) and every year has been something different, and each time I learned a bit more,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

This year, Kuss also will get to race with another cyclist from Durango: Quinn Simmons will make his Tour debut this year for Trek Segafredo.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will be cool to race with Quinn,\u201d Kuss said. \u201cIt\u2019s unique to have two riders from a small town like Durango, but that\u2019s just how it is with the Durango cycling scene.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

looking to make an impact in mountain stages<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":39736,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[657,28,2180],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-39735","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-cycling","tag-headlines","tag-road-cycling"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39735","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39735"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39735\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":84426,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39735\/revisions\/84426"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39736"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39735"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=39735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}