For the last week, with the help of Durango’s Sepp Kuss, Visma-Lease a Bike team leader Jonas Vingegaard is only 11 seconds behind rival and general classification leader Tadej Pogačar. However, the end margin won’t be close.
Pogačar holds a commanding lead of four minutes and 24 seconds in the general classification over Vingegaard on Saturday after 20 stages. Only one stage remains and it’s the flat finale into Paris.
Despite Kuss’ help in the mountain stages recently, Vingegaard’s poor Stage 5 time trial and Stage 12 were too much to overcome.
“We more or less tried everything we could,” Kuss said in an article on Velo. “There’s always a point where it just comes down to if you have the legs or not and we could try it when we could.”
After a consistent run of form over the last 10 stages, Kuss finished 99th in Stage 20 after riding 184.2 kilometers from Nantua, France, to Pontarlier, France, on Saturday. The Durangoan finished 22:17 behind stage winner Kaden Groves.
Groves went off the front of a breakaway group with about 17 km to go to for his first Tour stage win.
After finishing 99th in Stage 20, Kuss dropped down to 17th in the GC after being as high as 12th earlier in the Tour. He’s 1:20:24 behind Pogačar.
Fellow Durangoan Quinn Simmons hasn’t had the highs he had earlier to finish his Tour. The Lidl-Trek rider finished 107th in Stage 20, 22:17 behind Groves. Simmons is 59th in the GC, 3:17:45 behind Pogačar. Simmons’ high in the GC standing was 36th after he finished ninth in Stage 11.
On Friday, Stage 19 was altered due an outbreak of a contagious disease among the cattle on the route. The start in Albertville, France, and the finish in La Plagne, France, weren’t effected but the stage was cut from 129.9 km to 95 km.
Kuss finished 37th in the shortened mountain stage, 15:23 behind stage winner Thymen Arensman. Simmons finished 81st, 23:38 behind Arensman.
After 20 stages, Simmons’ Lidl-Trek teammate Jonathan Milan leads the points classification for the green jersey with 352 points. Behind him is Pogačar in second with 272 points and Biniam Girmay in third with 213 points. Simmons is eighth with 123 points.
Pogačar leads the King of the Mountain battle with 117 points, followed by Vingegaard in second with 104 points.
Florian Lipowitz increased his lead to 1:03 over Oscar Onley in the youth classification.
Visma Lease a Bike is in a fantastic position to take the team title with its 24:26 lead over Pogačar’s UAE Team Emirates-XRG.
bkelly@durangoherald.com
