Watch La Vuelta a Espana 2023 live on SBS VICELAND, or head to the, which contains replays, highlights and more for you to catch up on all the action.
Jumbo-Visma have completed a historic sweep of Grand Tours as Kuss crossed the finish line arm in arm with teammates Vingegaard and Roglic to celebrate the American's first ever Grand Tour victory and a perfect 1-2-3 for the Dutch outfit at La Vuelta.
The victory for Kuss follows Vingegaard's Tour de France success from July and Roglic's thrilling victory at the Giro d'Italia in May, becoming the first time in the history of the sport that a leading team has won all three Grand Tours in a calendar year.
The Jumbo-Visma triumvirate finished 10 minutes and 37 seconds behind stage winner Wout Poels (Bahrain Victorious) on the penultimate day of the race, as Vingegaard and Roglic maintained their respective 17 second and one minute and eight second gaps on their American teammate en route to becoming the first team to take a clean sweep of a Grand Tour’s top-three podium positions since Spanish squad KAS in the 1966 Vuelta a España.
The spontaneous show of team unity was a dream come true for super domestique Kuss.
“It’s very difficult to put this into words, I’m very happy and it was a great way to finish it all off at the end. I’ve almost, almost won, although there’s still tomorrow to come,” he said.
Kuss’ success in the Vuelta, too, means that barring absolute disaster on Sunday’s last stage, that his victory will come having been present in all three Grand Tours this year either as a domestique or a leader.
“For me personally, it’s just cool to be part of all three of them. Each of these races are very different from the others, and just seeing the differences in each of them, I guess it’s easy to say you get used to it, but there will always be surprises along the way,” he said. “So that’s the thing that’ll always stay.”
As for the race itself, Kuss started the Vuelta as a top domestique and ended it as the outright winner, and as a result, he said, he has discovered a lot about himself and his capacities in a Grand Tour. He was undecided, it seemed about whether this represented a major change in his career goals from hereon, given he is fond of both of his roles.
Watch via SBS On Demand
Full Replay: Stage 20 - La Vuelta a Espana 2023
“I’d like to do more of this [as a GC contender],” he said, “but I like my position as domestique as well.
“I learned a lot of the mental side of being a Grand Tour leader, being focussed and being there, because normally in the Grand Tours there are a lot of days when I’m more checked out mentally because it’s not my battle. Getting through the harder moments - that’s something that I learned.”
That also means that Kuss has learned more about his two teammates as well and how they have helped him en route to what is by far the biggest victory of his career.
“I’ve realise what they’ve done for me, what they’ve had to sacrifice, sporting wise, to help me is not easy because they’re two of the best cyclists in the world," he concluded. "That’s not so easy when used to winning the biggest races in the world. So I’m very grateful for what they’ve done for me.”
