Sepp Kuss has credited rival Mikel Landa with saving his Vuelta lead - which he converted to overall victory - on the day his own team mates, Primož Roglič and Jonas Vingegaard, were riding away from him.
The American's comments relate to stage 17 of the race, on the big finish of the L'Angliru, when Roglič rode away from race leader Kuss with Vingegaard in tow. It was a rare crack in the usually rock solid team approach by Jumbo Visma and ultimately paved the way for Roglič to leave the team.
When Kuss was left behind, as Roglič and Vingegaard rode to a 1-2 on the stage, the American was left back the road with Landa, then riding for Bahrain Victorious. On the day it looked like Landa strongly encouraged Kuss to ride as hard as he could to defend his lead, and then helped him.
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And now comments from Kuss have confirmed Landa helped him save the day, while Kuss also swore off ever being a team leader on a Grand Tour again given the stress within Jumbo Visma as Roglič openly attacked him in a bid to win the race himself.
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“I am very grateful to Mikel. He can drink beer at my expense for the rest of his life,” Kuss told an Amazon Prime five-part documentary called All-in | The Trilogy.
"I was confused. This was rivalry and politics that went over my head,” Kuss also tells the documentary. At another point he added: “Never again in my life. I never want to be a leader in a Grand Tour again.”
On the day in question, Kuss began the stage some 29 seconds up on Vingegaard while Roglič was 3rd at 1:33. However, while many fans of the sport believed Jumbo Visma should have closed ranks around Kuss at that point, Roglič pressed on that day, dropping Kuss and bringing Vingegaard with him.
Behind the leading duo, Kuss had help from rival Landa, with the duo combining to limit their losses to Vingegaard while Roglič to just 19 seconds.
That ensured Kuss maintained the race lead and that evening, after a team talk, the Jumbo Visma riders, and management, agreed to ride for Kuss, who won the race when it concluded four days later.
