Sepp Kuss of Durango won the sixth stage of the Vuelta a España on Thursday, crossing the finish line all alone on the summit of the Pico del Buitre.
“The Vuelta a España has always been an exceptional race for me,” Kuss said. “I felt super strong all day. It's fantastic to finish like this after all the hard work of my teammates. It's not often that I win a stage, but when it happens, it's a great feeling.”
The mountain stage climbed over 4,000 vertical meters, starting in la Vall d’Uixo and finishing 183.1 kilometers later at the Observatorio Astrofisico de Javalambre.
The stage also finished on a big climb, and Kuss was all by himself for the final kilometer, smiling and giving the crowd some high fives as he pedaled to victory.
Kuss won the stage in 4 hours, 27 minutes and 29 seconds and nearly took over the general classification lead in the process. Lenny Martinez of Groupama-FDJ finished second, 26 seconds after Kuss, to take the GC lead from Remco Evenepoel. Kuss is now second in the GC, eight seconds behind Martinez.
Winning the stage, however, wasn’t the goal at the start of the day. “We wanted to try and put pressure on Remco Evenepoel and Soudal-Quick Step,” Kuss said. “We knew it was going to be a difficult day to control. Dylan, Jan and Attila rode brilliantly. I have to thank them for all their hard work. For me, it was just a matter of finding out when to make the final gap.”
After tens of kilometers, Dylan van Baarle, Jan Tratnik and Attila Valter joined Kuss in the lead group of around 40 riders. After getting help from his teammates, Kuss surged on the final climb to win the day.
A few minutes behind Kuss, Primoz Roglic and Jonas Vingegaard attacked together on the steep final climb and gained over half a minute on Evenepoel.
Vingegaard, co-leader of Team Jumbo-Visma in the Spanish stage race, was also pleased with his team's tactics and praised Kuss. “He's a great guy,” Vingegaard said. “He deserves this after everything he has done for the team in the past. A great stage win.”
Vingegaard is 2:52 out of the GC lead in 11th, while Roglic is 2:58 back in 12th. Evenepoel slid eight spots to ninth, where he is 2:47 back.
Kuss is also second in the king of the mountain competition with 10 points, trailing Eduardo Sepulveda of Lotto Dstny (21).
In the points race, Kuss moved up 48 places and was eighth after the stage win with 35. Kaden Groves of Alpecin-Deceunink is the points leader with 122.
