Kuss on verge of greatness as "even Primož" wants him to win Vuelta | Video

Sepp Kuss is on he verge of greatness, with just two days to go at La Vuelta and with the race leader's jersey still on his back (Photo: Luis Angel Gomez-Sprint Cycling Agency)

Sepp Kuss has just a weekend of racing to overcome, with some climbs tomorrow, to keep his race leader's jersey at La Vuelta and join the elite club of pro cyclists to win a Grand Tour. Though he came under pressure from his own team mates in the general classification, Jonas Vingegaard and Primož Roglič have now rowed in behind him and the American will win this race on Sunday barring disaster.

On today's stage 19, some 177.1km from La Bañeza to Íscar, the expected bunch sprint came to pass though stage favourite, Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck), crashed in the final. In his absence, Alberto Dainese (Team dsm-firmenich) stepped up to claim the victory from Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers) and Marijn van den Berg (EF Education-EasyPost).

However, this race has been all about Jumbo Visma, and whether team politics and egos would combine to topple Kuss from the race lead in favour of Vingegaard or Roglič. After the team got a pasting in the media, and on social media, when the big two dropped Kuss on the Angliru on Wednesday, harmony seems to have broken out.

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Alberto Dainese sprints in to win the stage ahead of Filippo Ganna and Marijn Van Den Berg (Photo: Luis Angel Gomez-Sprint Cycling Agency)

One of the team's most trusted domestiques, Attila Valter, has now insisted the atmosphere in the team has been very different to the commentary on social media. "It's definitely different than what you see on social media. There's no hard feelings at all," he told Eurosport after today's stage.

"If you (scroll) through Twitter, it's getting quite annoying. I'd rather just not do it. In the last two days, I wish I hadn't done it because there is just too much opinion. Everywhere you see directors on social media.

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"Of course, it's really easy to judge a team from the outside. We did what we thought is the best – the team gave the freedom for everyone to race for victory and that's how they did. In the end, you saw it yesterday that everyone wants Seppy to win. That's just how they did."

"If you're a big champion like Primož, then of course you have this fight to want to win and until you're not empty then you want to keep pushing. So, it's of course a big dilemma and you can understand both sides. In the end, everybody is happy with Seppy winning, even Primož is happy with it. It's 1-2-3 and three Grand Tour (victories this year) so it's something huge and we have a super good mood in the bus."

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