The third and final grand tour of the cycling season will begin on Friday: The Vuelta a España.
Durangoan Sepp Kuss and his Team Jumbo-Visma teammates enter the competition after a dominant performance in the last grand tour, the Tour de France, when it won the yellow, green and polka-dot jerseys.
The team’s leader, Primoz Roglic, has won the Vuelta the past three years and is one of the favorites again this year. Remco Evenpoel and Julian Alaphilippe of Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl, Ethan Hayter of INEOS Grenadiers and Mads Pederson of Trek Segafredo are some cyclists who will challenge Roglic this year.
Tour de France general classification winner Jonas Vingegaard and points winner Wout Van Aert, however, won’t be racing in the Vuelta for Jumbo-Visma. Joining Kuss and Roglic on the team’s lineup includes Robert Gesink, Mike Teunissen, Rohan Dennis, Edoardo Affini, Chris Harper and Sam Oomen.
The Vuelta will begin Friday with a 23.3-kilometer team time trial and conclude 21 stages later on Sept. 11 in Madrid.
Fellow Durangoan Quinn Simmons, meanwhile, has been competing for Trek Segafredo in the five-stage Tour of Denmark, which began Tuesday. Trek has Mattias Jensen Skjelmose in third place in the general classification, only three seconds behind American Magnus Sheffield of INEOS Grenadiers in yellow and Christophe Laporte of Jumbo-Visma in second.
Olav Kooij of Jumbo-Visma won both the first and third stages while Sheffield won the second stage, which was a time trial.
Simmons moved up nine spots in the GC Thursday and is now in 108th, 12:54 behind Sheffield.
