Sepp Kuss on Saturday virtually clinched Vuelta a Espana victory as he maintained his overall lead before the ceremonial finale, while Wout Poels won stage 20 in a sprint finish ahead of Remco Evenepoel.
Jumbo-Visma rider Kuss only needed to make it through yesterday procession through Madrid to earn his first Grand Tour triumph.
The 29-year-old, usually a member of the supporting cast for coleaders Jonas Vingegaard, who is second overall, and Primoz Roglic, third, has held the red jersey since stage eight.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Back-to-back Tour de France winner Vingegaard and three-time Vuelta champion Roglic, who won this year’s Giro d’Italia, supported their colleague’s maiden success in the final stages, apparently on team orders.
No one challenged the Dutch team’s overall dominance on a hilly 207.8km run from Manzanares El Real to Guadarrama.
Kuss leads Vingegaard by 17 seconds and Roglic by 1 minute, 8 seconds going into the final day. The three crossed the line together, Kuss flanked by his teammates, who slapped hands with him and patted him on the back.
“[Celebrating together] was a special moment, to be able to relax that much in the last kilometer of a mountain stage with your two team-mates is really cool,” Kuss told Eurosport.
Jumbo-Visma are set to become the first team to complete a historic treble — winning all three of the Grand Tours in a single calendar year.
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