Sepp Kuss knows the Vuelta a España in the best of the three road cycling Grand Tour races for his style. Lots of climbing equals plenty of opportunities for the 26-year-old from Durango to attack.
Kuss, who had the first Grand Tour stage win of his career last year at the Spanish Vuelta, started the event for a third consecutive year Tuesday with a 107.5-mile ride from Irùn to Arrate-Eibar. The race, reduced from 21 stages to 18, started two months later than normal because of COVID-19 pandemic related schedule changes.
After a fast rolling start, the peloton settled into a day of climbing at the halfway point of the opening stage. Kuss and Team Jumbo-Visma took control from there.
On the final climb of Alto de Arate, a Category 2 ascent, Kuss attacked and rode over the summit first. A select group of riders were able to stay behind the wheel of Kuss, including his team leader Primož Roglic of Slovenia.
Team strategy worked perfectly, as Kuss’ attack on the final five kilometers of the climb set up Roglic to sprint on the final downhill kilometer to the finish line. Roglic punched it through the tight turns to win the stage and go into the leader’s red jersey. It is a familiar look for Roglic, who won last year’s Vuelta.
“It was a tough stage on paper,” Kuss said in a message to The Durango Herald. “We knew it would be quite selective right from the beginning, and we had to be ready. And the Vuelta is raced a bit differently than the (Tour de France). It’s pretty explosive. We wanted to maybe try a different, more attacking type tactic right from the beginning and maybe put some of the other teams on the back foot.”
Roglic, who wore the yellow jersey the majority of this year’s Tour de France before finishing second overall, finished in 4 hours, 22 minutes, 34 seconds, one second ahead of top rival Richard Carapaz, a Colombian riding for the INEOS Grenadiers. Ireland’s Dan Martin, competing for Israel Start-Up Nation, was third in the same time as Carapaz.
“This is a fantastic start,” Roglic said in a Jumbo-Visma news release. “I am very happy with this victory. The team has shown that we are very strong. They did a perfect job throughout the stage. It is great that I can reward them for their efforts with this stage victory. We went full gas on the final climb. Sepp rode really fast. I will wear this leader’s jersey with great pride again. Hopefully, we can provide the people at home even more spectacle. In any case, I’m going to enjoy this Vuelta. Day by day, we definitely have to do that this season.”
While Roglic earned the red jersey as well as the green sprinter’s points jersey for reaching the line first on Stage 1, Kuss won the 10 king of the mountain points for his assault of the final climb. He will have a four-point lead on France’s Quentin Jauregui and Spain’s Enric Mas going into another climbing day Wednesday.
Kuss finished the stage eighth overall, 10 seconds behind Roglic’s winning time.
“I felt good, myself, so I tried something,” Kuss said. “That forced the others out. We were able to keep the pace over the top. I knew if everything stayed together, then Primož could accelerate. It’s a tricky finish because it goes downhill in the last kilometer and there are some sharp corners, so you have to be first into those corners. So when he attacked, everybody else was on their limits. He had a good gap into the finish. For me, it’s so exciting when he finishes off like that.”
Kuss will have to defend the polka dot jersey Wednesday, though keeping Roglic in the red jersey is the team’s first priority. There will be three categorized climbs on the 94-mile route from Pamplona to Lekunberri, including a Category 1 ascent of Alto de San Miguel de Aralar. Riders will descend that climb before a short uphill finish.
“It was a good day for the team, but tomorrow is also another hard day,” Kuss said. “It’s going to be a lot of crosswinds, also a hard final climb. No rest for the weary here.”
jlivingston@durangoherald.com
