{"id":46042,"date":"2021-06-26T03:14:00","date_gmt":"2021-06-26T09:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/durangos-sepp-kuss-primed-for-second-career-tour-de-france\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:29:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:29:12","slug":"durangos-sepp-kuss-primed-for-second-career-tour-de-france","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/durangos-sepp-kuss-primed-for-second-career-tour-de-france\/","title":{"rendered":"Durango\u2019s Sepp Kuss primed for second career Tour de France"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Durango\u2019s
Durango\u2019s Sepp Kuss leads teammate Primo\u017e Rogli\u010d of Slovenia up the Loze pass during Stage 17 of the 2020 Tour de France cycling race on Sept. 16. Kuss and Rogli\u010d will look to master the climbs of the 2021 Tour de France over the next three weeks. (Christophe Ena\/Associated Press file)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

No longer a Tour de France rookie<\/a>, Sepp Kuss knows the challenge that lies ahead. Once again, he\u2019s ready to do his job when the three-week Grand Tour reaches the final mountain stages in the mighty Pyrenees.<\/p>\n

Kuss, the 26-year-old American cycling star from Durango, will embark on the 108th edition of the Tour de France on Saturday with a start in Brest with a hilltop finish in Landerneau. Twenty more stages will follow before the finish July 18 in Paris on the famed Champs-\u00c9lys\u00e9es.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am feeling good. I am happy, motivated and pretty excited to start the Tour,\u201d Kuss said Wednesday in a phone interview with The Durango Herald<\/em> before Thursday\u2019s team presentations. \u201cI did the Crit\u00e9rium du Dauphin\u00e9, and then as a team, we went straight to Tignes in the French Alps where we also trained last year before the Tour. We got the final touches on our preparation and all feel really good.\u201d<\/p>\n

A year ago, Kuss boomed in popularity around the globe after some massive efforts on a climbing-heavy Tour de France route. Already a stage winner at the 2019 Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a, Kuss turned heads with his stunning climbing on the most grueling stages of last year\u2019s Tour de France, the most iconic event in the sport.<\/p>\n

With Kuss as a top support rider, Team Jumbo-Visma\u2019s Primo\u017e Rogli\u010d of Slovenia wore the coveted leader\u2019s yellow jersey the majority of the 2020 race until the Stage 20 individual time trial, when 21-year-old Slovenian Tadej Poga\u010dar came from behind to swipe the yellow jersey away before the final victory ride into Paris.<\/p>\n

Poga\u010dar is back one year more mature for the UAE-Team Emirates squad, which will look to deliver him once more to Paris for back-to-back titles.<\/p>\n

At 31, Rogli\u010d returns as the second betting favorite behind his countryman and will once again be able to count on Kuss for team tactics on the climbing stages.<\/p>\n

\"From
From left, Australia's Richie Porte, Colombia's Miguel Angel Lopez, Sepp Kuss of the U.S., Slovenia's Primo\u017e Rogli\u010d wearing the overall leader's yellow jersey, and Slovenia's Tadej Poga\u010dar, climb the Loze pass during Stage 17 of the 2020 Tour de France. Poga\u010dar, Rogli\u010d and Porte are all favored contenders for the yellow jersey at this year\u2019s Tour. (AP Photo\/Christophe Ena)<\/span>Christophe Ena<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cWe\u2019re really motivated,\u201d Kuss said. \u201cAfter last year, we learned a lot. We\u2019re still as strong and motivated with pretty much the same team back from last year, and we want to ride the race how we want and to the best of our ability. But I think last year also showed us that, in the end, we have to do our best and be happy with every step we take rather than only focusing on one goal. Our opponents are all very strong, and we can\u2019t underestimate anybody. If we go there and do our best, I think we can be happy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rogli\u010d, the 2019 and 2020 winner of the Spanish Vuelta, has taken a bit of time off from racing but has been hard at work in training alongside Kuss in the Tignes and earlier in May in Spain.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am confident I\u2019m in shape,\u201d Rogli\u010d said in a Team Jumbo-Visma news release<\/a>. \u201cNormally, I react very well to altitude training. In previous years, I also had a period without racing. Like the period between the Giro d\u2019Italia and the Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a in 2019 or the corona period in 2020.\u201d<\/p>\n

As has become customary, all eyes will be on the Ineos Grenadiers team, whether there is infighting within the squad or if they are able to produce a winning rider.<\/p>\n

Along with the third-betting favorite in Ecuador\u2019s Richard Carapaz, the 2019 Giro d\u2019Italia champion and 2021 Tour de Suisse winner, Ineos will also bring this year\u2019s Crit\u00e9rium du Dauphin\u00e9 champion Richie Porte of Australia as well as Geraint Thomas, the 2018 Tour de France champion and 2019 runner-up. Ineos also has British star Tao Geoghegan Hart, the 2020 Giro d\u2019Italia champion.<\/p>\n

Ineos will be motivated after not being able to deliver Egan Bernal, the 2019 Tour de France champion, last year to the Champs-\u00c9lys\u00e9es. Bernal won this year\u2019s Giro d\u2019Italia but is not on the Tour roster.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have three or four guys who are all really big threats, and they each have their own skill-set,\u201d Kuss said of Ineos. \u201cI think, from their position, they will try to make the race hard by attacking with those guys. That\u2019s up to us or other teams to be able to follow the different cards they have. It will make the race definitely more exciting this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s route will have two individual time trials for the first time since 2017. Kuss previously lost ground in time trials but has improved in that department already this season. Because of that, he is 14th among betting favorites to win the entire Tour at 80-1 odds. Those are the same odds as his strong Belgian national champion teammate Wout van Aert, who has three stage wins in his previous two showings at the Tour de France.<\/p>\n

\"With
With a strong time trial performance in the prologue backed up by safe finishes on the first two stages, Sepp Kuss sits 11 halfway into the Tour de Romandie.<\/span>Courtesy of Team Jumbo-Visma<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

This year, there are eight flat, five hilly and six mountain stages to go with the two individual time trials. Only three finishes \u2013 Stages 9, 17 and 18 \u2013 have summit finishes. The Stage 18 climb on July 15 on Luz Ardiden in the Pyrenees could be the last chance for a general classification contender to establish a strong lead before a flat Stage 19, a Stage 20 individual time trial and the flat victory ride on Stage 21 into Paris.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople will say maybe this year the route does not have enough summit finishes or is not as mountainous, but in the end, racers decide how hard it is going to be,\u201d Kuss said. \u201cThere are less mountains than last year, but that is going to make it tough because it will be even more aggressive on those mountain stages that there are.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kuss will feel at home during Stage 15 on July 11 before the last of the two rest days. It is a mountainous day in Andorra with a climb of Col de Beixalis before a ripping downhill finish. The start that day in C\u00e9ret is one of 10 new stage cities on this year\u2019s route. There are four categorized climbs that day.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that will be one of the toughest stages, and it will be cool because I will go right by my house in Andorra,\u201d Kuss said. \u201cThe last stages in the Pyrenees are also going to be pretty hard. Every mountain stage is decisive. Because there are more time trials, the more climber-type riders have to make up time in the mountains.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kuss is eager to enjoy a Tour de France a year after quarantine. Last year\u2019s Tour was pushed back from its usual summer start until the final week of August with the event rolling through September.<\/p>\n

\"Courtesy
Courtesy of Team Jumbo-VismaDurango's Sepp Kuss is looking at his second career start at the Tour de France. Once more, his goal is to get through the opening week without injury to be ready for the bigger climbs in the final two weeks of the world's most infamous road cycling event.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cIt\u2019s such a different year scheduling wise,\u201d Kuss said. \u201cLast year, there were question marks all around the race. We didn\u2019t even know if we would make it through the first stage with the COVID situation being so unknown. Now, it\u2019s more or less a normal season. We\u2019ve been able to have a lot of races instead of just training. I have felt pretty good. I still had some work to do in training after Dauphin\u00e9 to get to my best level, but luckily I\u2019ve had that time to improve.\u201d<\/p>\n

And while there were still plenty of fans lining the roads last year despite the COVID-19 pandemic, Kuss knows it will be even crazier this year with lockdowns lifted.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast year, there were still a bit more people than you would expect for most of the world being in lockdown. This year with restrictions eased quite a bit, it\u2019s going to be full-on spectators,\u201d Kuss said. \u201cIt\u2019s great for the atmosphere, and hopefully everything stays safe.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the Tour, a lot of people are there just to get drunk and don\u2019t know so much what it\u2019s like to ride through a horde of people, and sometimes there\u2019s not that much respect for the riders. But it\u2019s all part of it. You really never know what you\u2019re going to encounter.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kuss turned down a spot on the USA Cycling team for the 2021 Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo.<\/a> The race would have come a week after the Tour de France, and he will aim to spend that time to recover before gaining his first team leadership role at the Spanish Vuelta in August. It will be his fourth career Vuelta start.<\/p>\n

For Kuss, it was an easy decision to pass up the chance to be an Olympian to focus on the Grand Tour events that matter most to the team. Kuss signed a new three-year contract extension with Team Jumbo-Visma this spring<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI already had my schedule more or less decided in December,\u201d Kuss said. \u201cI already knew I probably wasn\u2019t going to make the Olympics work with what I wanted to get out of the season. A lot of people say, \u2018Aww but there is only one Olympics and a lot of Vueltas,\u2019 and stuff like that. But when you have that opportunity in one year to go for the Vuelta like I do this year, then you have to make a decision. In pro cycling, every year counts. In my mind, the Olympics is just another race. It is the biggest global sporting event, but in cycling, there is a lot more than just the Olympics. It would be cool to say I am an Olympian, but for me, it\u2019s not what I do it for. There are bigger goals.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kuss said he doesn\u2019t believe the 2024 Olympic road race course in Paris will suit his climbing style, so he also doesn\u2019t see himself going to that Olympics. But he didn\u2019t completely close the door on a future Olympics, potentially in 2028 in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

\"Durango\u2019s
Durango\u2019s Sepp Kuss, left, is riding in support of general classification hopeful Primoz Roglic, right, during the 2021 Tour de France. Kuss has been able to lend a wheel to Roglic during the Slovenian\u2019s win at the 2019 Vuelta, his third-place ride at the 2019 Giro and his second-place finish at last year\u2019s Tour de France. (Courtesy of Team Jumbo-Visma)<\/span>File courtesy of Team Jumbo-Visma<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

For now, he is focused on his job at the Tour and working to once again try to put Rogli\u010d into the coveted yellow jersey. He won\u2019t be hard to miss on the NBC Sports or Peacock streaming broadcasts. On their new Cerv\u00e9lo bicycles, the Team Jumbo-Visma riders will be riding with a unique blue front tire as part of a sponsorship arrangement.<\/p>\n

They hope to keep that blue tire at the front of the race for three weeks.<\/p>\n

\u201cPrimo\u017e is our main, big leader, and I want to help him as much as I can,\u201d Kuss said. \u201cI think for me, it\u2019s also about getting through the first week in good shape and not losing too much time just to see what I can do. I want to be there, but in the end, I want to help Primo\u017e in the mountains on the really decisive days. We\u2019ll see; it will be less of a controlling type race like it was a year ago. We have different cards to play on our team, too. We\u2019ll see what the tactics are as we go.\u201d<\/p>\n

jlivingston@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

for American star, but Jumbo-Visma looks to again contend for yellow jersey with Rogli\u010d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":46043,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[657,28,2180,346],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-46042","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-cycling","tag-headlines","tag-road-cycling","tag-sports"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46042","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=46042"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46042\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":86721,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46042\/revisions\/86721"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46043"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46042"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=46042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}