Sepp Kuss and his Jumbo Visma teammates helped their leader, Primoz Roglic, capture his third title on the Vuelta a España, which concluded Sunday.
Kuss, meanwhile, finished eighth overall in the grand tour’s overall individual rankings.
In the team’s final race report of the Vuelta, general manager Richard Plugge expressed his admiration for the team and its performance.
“I experienced the past weeks with pride,” Plugge said. “We have seen a very strong team. We were able to control the race in a good way. The strength of our team across the board makes me very proud. Primoz is one of the few riders to win the Vuelta three times in a row. I think we have to keep realizing that only a few riders are able to win a grand tour. It is therefore very nice that we now win again. You never get used to that, and it is something to be very proud of. This season, we are again one of the best teams in the world. We still see room for improvement, so we will continue to work hard on that in the years to come.”
Roglic, who cemented his title by winning his fourth stage, a time trial, on the final day, finished the 21 stages in a combined 83 hours, 55 minutes and 29 seconds. The second-place finisher, Enric Mas, was 4 minutes, 42 seconds back.
“It was another beautiful day, and it were three beautiful weeks,” Roglic said in the race report. “I am very happy for myself and the guys around me. This is truly a team effort. It was a tough last stage. Still, I enjoyed the crowd and the support along the way.”
Kuss cracked the top 10 in the tour’s final standings, finishing with a total time of 84:15:56, less than 19 minutes behind Roglic. Kuss’ best finish was in the 17th stage, a second-place finish behind Roglic.
Kuss also finished seventh in the climber rankings with 19 points.
In the team race, Jumbo Visma finished second, behind Bahrain Victorious.
Quinn Simmons and Trek Segafredo finished ninth out of the 23 teams. Simmons also helped his team leader, Juan Pedro Lopez Perez, finish 13th overall in the Vuelta.
Simmons went for a win on stage 19. Simmons surged and had a late lead in the race, but after a sprint to the finish, he crossed less than a bike length behind the stage’s winner, Magnus Cort Nielson. Simmons ended up placing third in the stage and 124th overall.
