A water carrier just won the hardest cycling race on the planet
Something amazing happened this past weekend.
If you are an American, you probably have not heard about it. You probably don't know who did it or what he did. And until you clicked on this article, you probably didn't care. But you should.
Sepp Kuss won the Vuelta a España.
Who? Did what now?
Kuss is a 29-year-old professional cyclist from Durango, Colorado. On Sunday, he won one of the three major "grand tours" in road cycling. The others are the more famous Tour de France and the Giro d'Italia. All are grueling, three-week races across the flatlands and mountainous terrain of their eponymous nations. The Spanish tour is the last of the three, and this year it had the most difficult and demanding route.
What's so remarkable about Kuss winning is that he has devoted his career to helping other cyclists win these grand tours. His Vuelta win is a little bit like Kansas City Chiefs starting center Creed Humphrey winning the National Football League Most Valuable Player trophy instead of his quarterback, Patrick Mahomes.
Kuss is much beloved in the professional peloton and cycling fandom. He has myriad nicknames, from "The Durango Kid" to "The Mailman" (because he always delivers as a helper) to my favorite, "GC Kuss." The latter was a formerly ironic nickname because, while Kuss is absolutely one of the world's most elite climbers on a bike, he never came close to winning the "general classification" in a major pro bike race.
Until this Vuelta.
There is a famous cycling film that was made 50 years ago, at the Giro d'Italia, titled Stars and Water Carriers. That edition of the race featured the biggest stars, including Belgian rider Eddy Merckx, widely considered the greatest bike racer of all time. But the film also focuses on the water carriers, the riders who fetch water for their team leaders, protect their position in the peloton, ride into the wind, and so much more.
Kuss is a water carrier.
He is a highly paid one, to be sure. He makes more than $1 million per year as a luxury domestique. In the mountains, he does the final lead out for the stars on his team, Jonas Vingegaard of Denmark and Primož Roglič of Slovenia. You've probably never heard of these two men, but they are two of the three best "general classification" riders in the world. (The other one, not at the race, is Tadej Pogačar, who improbably also hails from Slovenia.) Vingegaard has won the last two Tours de France. Earlier this year, Kuss also helped Roglič win the Giro d'Italia. They ride for the best cycling team in the world, based in the Netherlands and sponsored by a chain of supermarkets called Jumbo-Visma.
Should you not ride for the race leader?
Early on in this year's Vuelta, Kuss was sent in a breakaway to mark other riders. Because other cycling teams in the race did not view him as an overall threat to win the race, Kuss gained an advantage of a couple of minutes. It was thought that he would lose this during the time trial stage because he has not ridden these race-against-the-clock stages particularly well in the past.
But then a couple of things turned the race on its head. Kuss rode a pretty good time trial, only losing about one minute to many of his rivals. And then the main rival to the Jumbo-Visma team, a Belgian named Remco Evenepoel, had a bad day in the mountains, losing a lot of time. Suddenly, Kuss, Roglič, and Vingegaard were ranked first, second, and third, respectively, in the standings.
GC Kuss was no longer a joke. But could the water carrier transform into a star? For days over the last week, it was not at all clear. This would require Vingegaard and Roglič, stars of the sport, to submerge their egos and transform their roles. Could they become water carriers? Would they?
Cycling is a beautiful and preposterous sport. It is beautiful because of the amazing landscapes and intricate tactics that individual riders and teams follow in their pursuit of the overall win, a victory during the daily stage of the race, and other competitions within the competition. It is preposterous because of what cyclists do to their bodies to compete. They starve themselves to become exceptionally skinny, and then they go out every day for three weeks and beat the hell out of themselves. The wattage they can sustain on a bike, 300, 400, 500 or even more leg-breaking watts for minutes at a time, boggles the mind.
Leadership is also a great challenge. Kuss had never undertaken these responsibilities before, the weight of expectation or carrying the burden of winning for his team. He did not expect to be in his role. This was his third grand tour of the year, riding these demanding and exhaustive races in May, July, and now September. No rider can peak for all three races, and he was only able to do it because he played a supportive role in all three, taking some days easier than others.
A heart-stopping moment
As the last week progressed, it became abundantly clear that Kuss, Vingegaard, and Roglič were the three best overall riders in the Vuelta and that they would sweep the podium. But despite being the leader by more than a minute and a half on his teammates, it was unclear whether they would rally behind Kuss.
The issue came to a head on Wednesday, September 13. That day, the race climbed arguably the most difficult climb in Europe, a peak with sustained inclines above 15 percent called the Angliru. It is a climb so steep that you or I probably would not feel particularly safe riding down. Certainly we would blanch at trying to ride up it.
With just 2.8 kilometers left on this staggering mountain, Roglič attacked to win the stage. Kuss was unable to follow. Initially, Vingegaard lifted his cadence to match Roglič. As he got to the Slovenian's wheel, Vingegaard looked back and saw Kuss dangling, falling away from the pace. If Kuss were a typical race leader, there would have been no question. Vingegaard would have waited and paced Kuss to the line to minimize his time loss. But instead, Vingegaard stayed with Roglič.
As a cycling fan who roots for the underdog, this was a heart-stopping moment. The race seemed to be slipping away. But Kuss gathered himself and rode to the line with a Spanish rider. At the end of the day, in terms of total race time, he led Vingegaard by just eight seconds. And there were two more significant mountain stages left.
The Spanish mountains swirled with intrigue that night. Roglič and Vingegaard professed that they wanted Kuss to win, though their actions suggested otherwise. Roglič, however, acknowledged that the Jumbo-Visma riders should be able to go for their own ambitions. But attacking a team leader? Such a thing just does not happen in cycling.
And it did not happen again. Maybe the team management stepped in and laid down the law. Perhaps Kuss reminded his teammates of how many races he has helped them win. We don't know. But on stage 18, last Thursday, the Jumbo-Visma team controlled the race. And when the action reached its denouement in the high mountains, Vingegaard came to the front and set a pace for Kuss. At the end, the Dane rider even faded, allowing Kuss to come in at the same time as Roglič and extend his lead to 17 seconds.
On Saturday, the final mountain stage, there were no antics. The three Jumbo riders crossed the finish line side by side, united at last, stars and water carriers. Sepp Kuss was going to win the Vuelta a España, which he did on Sunday by 17 seconds. He is the first American cyclist to win a grand tour in a decade.
GC Kuss is king
This was phenomenal for a lot of reasons. But most of all, for me, it was awesome because I really like Kuss, Vingegaard, and Roglič. The prospect of one of them stabbing Kuss in the back was terrible to contemplate. Based upon post-race interviews and informed speculation, it seems like Vingegaard always wanted Kuss to win. He knows full well how valuable Kuss has been in helping to win the cycling world's most important race, the Tour de France. More glory awaits Vingegaard, and now Kuss will be doubly faithful.
Roglič is older, 33, and nearing the end of his peak form as a cyclist. He has won the Vuelta three times, and this would have been his fourth record-setting win. When he attacked on the Angliru climb, it was to win the stage, but Roglič would also have won the overall race if he took more than a minute on Kuss.
In Roglič's mind, this was defensible. Should the strongest person not win the race? The question, then, is why Vingegaard followed instead of pacing Kuss. I think it's because he did not know how strong Kuss was. And if Kuss were to hit a really bad spot, Vingegaard did not want Roglič to win. So he followed his wheel. And to be clear, Vingegaard could have taken the overall lead. He could have pulled with Roglič or taken bonus seconds at the end. But he did not. He sat on Roglič's wheel.
In the end, Kuss went just fast enough, and Roglič just slow enough, to win.
To the extent that most people outside of Europe know about cycling, they know of the Tour de France or American Lance Armstrong and his doping scandals. It is, therefore, natural to ask, should we be suspicious of Jumbo-Visma taking the three podium spots in the Vuelta? It hasn't happened in decades. And no team has ever won all three grand tours in a season—Roglič the Giro, Vingegaard the Tour, and now Kuss the Vuelta. So hell yeah, we should probably be a little bit suspicious. There is unbelievably awesome, and there is just unbelievable. Jumbo's dominance comes close to the latter, but not so far that I am convinced of underhandedness.
In truth, to be a pro cycling fan requires a bit of cognitive dissonance. One must both like cyclists and accept the possibility that they're cheating. You never really know in cycling until someone is popped. Fifteen years ago, during the Lance Armstrong heyday, pretty much everyone was doped to the gills. And pretty much everyone screamed their innocence right up until the end.
There are some reasons to believe the sport may have changed in those last 15 years. But we cannot know for sure. So I have to accept that and watch and root in uncertainty. After all, professional cycling is a beautiful and preposterous sport.
It is also the best sport in the world. And for a few days, at least, GC Kuss is king.
