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Wow! An American Leading a Grand Tour – The First in a Decade

by John Neugent

Tech articles | Commentary articles |

John Neugent probably knows more about bicycle wheels than anyone else alive. Maybe more about bikes as well. He's spent his life in the bike business, at every level. He now owns Neugent Cycling, a firm devoted to delivering world-class equipment at the lowest possible price. If you are in the market for a set of wheels, please, check out John's site. He really knows his stuff. —Chairman Bill

Author John Neugent

Les Woodland's book Cycling's World Championships: The Inside Story is available in print, Kindle eBook & audiobook versions. To get your copy, just click on the Amazon link on the right.

John Neugent writes:

Sepp Kuss is currently leading the Vuelta a España. But there’s a lot more to unpack. Readers who follow racing know everything I am going to write but for those who don’t let me explain why this is a big deal.

Sepp has done all three grand tours this year, The Giro, TDF, and now the Vuelta. In all three he’s played a supporting role to his other teammates Jonas Vingegaard (two-time TDF winner) and Primoz Roglic (three-time Vuelta winner and winner of this year’s Giro). He started this Vuelta in support of them but ended up winning the 6th stage and was in the leader jersey by over 2 minutes on stage 8.

Sepp Kuss wins Vuelta stage six. Sirotti photo

Tuesday the fifth was the big time trial stage and Sepp had never been strong on a time trial stage. But, and this is key, support riders use time trial stages as a kind of day off. No one “ burns matches” as they are called when they are not needed. Sepp essentially used this stage as a test of his time trial abilities and it turns out he’s much better than anyone expected, coming in 13th less than a minute behind Remco Evenepoel.

After Remco Evenepoel rode a superb time trial, finishing second to Filippo Ganna, Kuss was still the GC leader.

Some more basic strategies of grand tour races. There are many different abilities that are tested. Climbers need to be light and fast up hills. Sprinters don’t need to be light but they need to be fast. Other domestiques tend to be motors, going along flat lands at high sustainable speeds. Time trialers need to be extremely fast over relatively short (generally 5 to 25 miles) and varying terrain. The riders who win Grand Tours need to be very good at climbing and time trialing. Their team helps them out in all other areas but no one can help them out on a time trial and it’s mano a mano on the steep climbs where aerodynamic effects play only a little part.

This Vuelta is exciting for a number of reasons. It has the best field of any Grand Tour this year with Evenepoel, Roglic, Vingegaard all being Grand Tour Winners. The video coverage is amazing with Chris Horner, GCN, and ToDo, doing amazing coverage (all for free on YouTube). And, of course, BikeRaceInfo.com does an amazing job on all road racing (and there is no paywall).

Jonas Vingegaard with racing immortal Miguel Indurain before the start of stage 15. Sirotti photo

And we finally have a great American leading it. Sepp does not appear to have a huge ego. A nice guy who will ride supporting his other teammates if it means the team can win. That seems to be almost unheard of in modern sports. Wouldn’t it be nice if it’s true?

Sepp Kuss in the race leader's red jersey after stage fifteen. Sirotti photo

John Neugent was one of the first to establish the making of quality hand-built wheels in Taiwan around the turn of the century. He now owns Neugent Cycling, a firm devoted to delivering world-class equipment at the lowest possible price.