Three racers drop back a little from their group. They straighten their upper bodies and shake hands. They are still trying to find their balance, a little unsteadily. Riding upright is not the speciality of the professionals from Jumbo-Visma. Too much effort is put into wind tunnel tests to find the best aerodynamic position for the racers to be trained to ride upright with their hands free. But then the longed-for cheering picture appears: Sepp Kuss in the centre, framed by Jonas Vingegaard and Primoz Roglic. The two-time Tour de France winner and the Giro and Vuelta champion point to the man in the centre as if to say: "This one is the hero of this Vuelta a Espana. He deserves the limelight. And we accept that now.
Sepp Kuss's professional background was helpful in the production of cheering pictures for the Tour of Spain 2023. Before starting his professional cycling career in Europe, the US-born American completed his studies in advertising. "Advertising is important, you have to be able to interest people in what you do. And that can then differentiate you as a team or as a rider from other teams or other products," he explained the connection between pedalling and advertising at the time. His colleagues Roglic and Vingegaard, meanwhile, apparently had to undergo a good ten days of further training in self-marketing before they accepted one of the most valuable helpers in their own Grand Tour victories as their equal, as someone who also has a Grand Tour victory "in him" and who must therefore be supported.
Jumbo-Visma: Learning process for captains
This process went through several stages. It began on the sixth stage. Jumbo-Visma put three riders in the breakaway group of the day. Kuss, who celebrated his 29th birthday during the stage race on 13 September, took the stage win and had enough time to high-five a few spectators before crossing the finish line. "We wanted to feel Quick-Step out," said the US-American, before he took such deep sips from the champagne bottle on the podium that you thought he was about to empty it completely. "He's still the kid from college who knows how to party," joked his former team-mate Rob Britton from the US Rally Cycling team. Adam de Vos, who also knows Kuss from the early stages of his career, recalled a lot of Aperol Spritz after races in Italy in the 2017 season. Kuss is someone who can still be open-heartedly happy.
This, and his enormous willingness to make sacrifices as a helper, made him a favourite with the public and the peloton at the 2023 Vuelta a Espana; however, no one had him on their radar as a potential Vuelta winner until then. Kuss had won the stage, but the nominal leaders, Roglic and Vingegaard, were 44 seconds faster than their helper on the final climb. Two days later, Kuss took the overall lead - but it was only after he defended his lead in the time trial of the tenth stage that he was upgraded from noble helper to candidate for victory.
Vuelta a Espana 2023: Turning point time trial
"We came to the Vuelta with two clear frontrunners: Jonas and Primoz. We made it clear beforehand that we didn't care who won as long as it was someone from Jumbo-Visma. For tactical reasons, we let Sepp start the sixth stage. He made up a lot of time there. After the time trial he was still in good shape. From that moment on, he became part of our strategy and we decided to ride with three front runners," explained Marc Reef, the team's sporting director.
However, the forces that were now released could almost no longer be controlled. Vingegaard and Roglic interpreted the freedom in such a way that they were allowed to ride away Kuss. Vingegaard pulverised the best time that Thibaut Pinot had set there at the Tour de France 2019 (51:15 min.) on stage 13 of the Vuelta a Espana 2023 on the Tourmalet with 50:54 minutes.
Kuss' time of 51:24 remained within the range of Bora pro Emanuel Buchmann 2019 (51:23), with Roglic three seconds behind. On Angliru, the 17th stage of the Vuelta a Espana 2023, the Slovenian stage winner and the Dane set the second-best time ever (42:29). The best time of 41:56 has been held for 23 years by Roberto Heras, a rider from the high doping era.
Kuss was only marginally worse than his team-mates - and felt disrespected by them. "We sat down together after the Angliru stage, talked things over and decided on a new approach," he later said. The three protagonists did not want to reveal the exact words that were spoken. "That's not for the press," said Vingegaard succinctly.
In any case, the three teamed up from then on: Vingegaard neutralised advances by rivals from other teams on stage 18 of the Vuelta a Espana 2023, Roglic took over the job on stage 20. After that, there were only songs of praise for each other. "The best man won," said Roglic. "I could never have stuck the knife in Sepp's back after everything he's done for me in previous races," Vingegaard tried to convince the public. And of course it was easy for Kuss to thank them "for their great support".
Within the racing team, the excitement surrounding the team tactics was not understood anyway. "The three of them were given their freedom and they used it. They didn't race against each other, but with each other. And whoever has the better legs wins. We earned this great position," said team-mate Attila Valter, assessing the days between the 13th and 18th stage. The Hungarian even mocked the many self-appointed sporting directors on social media: "It's super easy to judge a team from the outside. We did what we thought was best. In the end, you could see that everyone wanted Sepp to win."
Jumbo-Visma: industry king
Jumbo-Visma has reached its absolute peak with the triple success at the Vuelta a Espana 2023 by Kuss, Vingegaard and Roglic at this Vuelta and by winning the three Grand Tours this season. It all began very modestly in 2013, when Team Blanco was formed from the remnants of the Rabobank racing team, which had been shaken by doping scandals. "Back then, we wanted to take a new path and leave the past behind us. From 2015 and 2016, we began to invest more energy, money and effort in aerodynamics, equipment, nutrition, sleep and, of course, training. We initially modelled ourselves on Team Sky, but then developed our own path," said Team Principal Richard Plugge, looking back on the past few years.
It is not as if other World Tour racing teams do not attach importance to the aspects of their profession mentioned by Plugge. But what is striking compared to the former industry leader Sky is the more modern approach to captains. Not only does Jumbo-Visma often deploy several leaders in the races; their roles are also varied. Roglic, for example, stood in for his aide Vingegaard without complaint after his crash at the 2022 Tour de France. In any case, Wout van Aert is the perfect example of a rider who takes on the role of captain in many races, but who not only subordinates his own ambitions to the team's goals in the grand tours, but also literally tears himself apart as a helper. "Wout is such a great guy and the world's best helper. I think Tadej Pogacar would also choose him first and foremost," said Jumbo's sporting director Grischa Niermann on the sidelines of the Tour of France. The fact that three-time Vuelta winner Primoz Roglic accepted to have Vingegaard alongside him as second leader at the 2023 Vuelta a Espana after his Tour victory is further proof of the normality of role changes - at Jumbo-Visma. At Team Sky, on the other hand, the tablecloth between Bradley Wiggins and Chris Froome was so cut after the 2012 Tour de France that the two superstars did not contest another Grand Tour together.
Jumbo-Visma at the Vuelta a Espana: Total cycling
Team boss Richard Plugge has coined the term "total cycling" to describe the new approach. He modelled it on the "Voetbal total" of the Dutch national football team led by Johan Cruyff. Their trademark was quick changes of position in order to bring greater dynamism to the game and be less predictable. "Now we're better than the Oranje team back then. We have won our World Cup, which is the Tour de France," Plugge proudly summarised.
Today's most successful professional cycling team has no intention of slowing down in the future. A successor has not yet been found for name sponsor Jumbo, who will be leaving the team next season. "But I can assure you that our budget is in place. We are planning until 2030," says Plugge. However, there is no need to fear that only Jumbo-Visma will win in future. "We still have the goal of being the best team in the world," assured Matxin Fernandez, Manager of UAE Team Emirates, for example. And indeed, despite the outstanding Jumbo performance in Spain, UAE continues to lead the UCI team rankings, and UAE star Tadej Pogacar is ahead of all Jumbo riders in the individual rankings. "With Tadej, Adam Yates and Jay Vine, the Vuelta a Espana would certainly have gone very differently from our side," said Fernandez. His words suggest that the three-rider formula may set a precedent in the future. Vingegaard, Roglic and Kuss vs. Pogacar, Yates and Vine. That would be total cycling 2.0.
It is obvious that this form of superiority, alongside envy and resentment, also raises doubts - which were inevitably fuelled by the positive doping test of German Jumbo pro Michel Heßmann during a training check. Kuss assured that he does not dope because he is not afraid of losing - and that doping is a means of combating the fear of defeat. That sounds convincing. But only time will tell whether it is more than just a clever slogan from Kuss, a trained advertising specialist.
Commentary by Tom Mustroph: Doing right by everyone
Jumbo-Visma could hardly please anyone at this Vuelta. At one point, the captains Primoz Roglic and Jonas Vingegaard were accused of being ungrateful to their noble helper Sepp Kuss. That certainly felt good morally. But competitive sport is all about competing. The fact that Jumbo-Visma partially cancelled the stable order only added to the tension. Apart from Remco Evenepoel, who was free-floating on the other side of the classification, nobody else was in a position to mount any serious attacks.
When Vingegaard and Roglic had put enough of a buffer between themselves and the chasers, Jumbo finally rode into the block. Those who had previously grumbled were only half-satisfied that gratitude was now the trump card. At the same time, there was grumbling about the "gift victory" for Kuss - partly from those who had previously missed the bosses' gratitude.
Yes, Kuss was certainly not stronger than Vingegaard or Roglic. But he was flushed to the top of the classification by a tactical coincidence. He held his own there and looked more solid than Ayuso, Landa and all the rest. He had the strongest team around him and is the deserved winner.
