Sepp Kuss surrendered the yellow jersey as the overall leader of the Tour of Utah on Wednesday, but the Durangoan still stands strong in the top 10.
Kuss, 22, finished 17th in the Stage 3 individual time trial. He completed the 5.6 mile uphill course up Big Cottonwood Canyon in 19 minutes, 33.57 seconds. That was 1:04 behind Robert Britton, Kuss’ teammate on the Rally Cycling team.
Britton took over the yellow jersey and has a 26-second lead on Gavin Mannion of the UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling Team. Serghei Tvetcov of the Jelly Bell P/B Maxxis team is in third, 28 seconds behind Britton.
Kuss is now in 10th place overall, 1:02 behind Britton in the general classification standings.
Four stages remain in the Tour of Utah. Thursday’s Stage 4 in South Jordan City is perhaps the most unique stage of the week. Though it features little climbing over 123 miles, there is one section of roughly 10 miles of maintained dirt and gravel.
“Nobody is really sure how that will play out,” Kuss said. “I hope everyone gets through it without a bunch of flats or any crashes, but we will see how it goes.”
jlivingston@durangoherald.com
