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No wonder Sepp Kuss was all smiles at the end of Wednesday’s potentially explosive stage that went flat at the Vuelta a España.
An uphill finale, and all the GC favorites riding shoulder-to-shoulder with no attacks?
That was the weird and controversial dynamic that unfolded Wednesday at the end of stage 11 at the Vuelta a España on the steep uphill run to La Laguna Negra.
Did Remco Evenepoel and others miss a chance to chip away at Kuss and Jumbo-Visma’s tightening stranglehold on the red jersey?
“I am not going to attack on every climb,” Evenepoel said defensively at the line. “It’s still a super-long Vuelta. Jumbo has all the cards in their hards, and I don’t need to attack on every climb.”
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What exactly was going on?
A few things. First, the climb wasn’t really that hard, at least by what the peloton’s been facing so far in this Vuelta.
A long, flat run-in to the base of the final climb saw a breakaway finally pull clear after a long battle, and the steepest bits of the climb were near the summit.
So there wasn’t anything to put pressure on the bunch, unless a team really took up the chase.
A few lower-tier GC riders opened up some flares, like Hugh Carthy (EF Education First-EasyPost), but none of the “bigs” opened up the engines.
Evenepoel even told his teammates at Soudal Quick-Step to slow down.
“We were in front and some guys started to set the pace. I was saying to them to stay calm and to slow down because it’s not for us to take the race into our hands,” Evenepoel said. “It made no sense to do any hard pacing on this climb.”
The road was also quite narrow, so it was hard for riders to jump clear if they really wanted to move.
Another factor? UAE Team Emirates’ captain Juan Ayuso crashed early in the stage, so that team, also with three in the top-10, didn’t want to press the action for risk of popping its own leader.
And after a wild and incident-marred start to the Vuelta that’s seen everything from riders racing in the dark, mud on the roadway, and protesters threatening to dump oil onto the course, a relatively routine day in the office seemed a bit welcome by everyone.
Pyrénées looming: ‘Everything is good for us’
Kuss all smiles after the finish Wednesday. (Photo: CESAR MANSO/AFP via Getty Images)
The most important factor in Wednesday’s detente lies in what looms on the horizon.
After Thursday’s sprint stage, this weekend’s triple-deck of summit finales across the Spanish and French Pyrénées will see the race truly open up.
Friday’s summit finish atop the Col du Tourmalet and Saturday’s knee-buster to Larra-Belagua is on everyone’s mind.
“I think the pace was high on the climb, but it wasn’t too difficult, and no one wanted to go for it. We will have to wait until Friday, then we will see how we are doing,” said two-time Tour de France champion Jonas Vingegaard.
Jumbo-Visma is the most enviable position halfway through the Vuelta, with Kuss in red, Primož Roglič in fourth, and Vingegaard still a threat in seventh.
“Primož and Sepp have both already won a stage and I hope I can add one to that as well,” he told reporters at the line Wednesday. “But as long as we have the red jersey, everything is good for us.”
Kuss: ‘You always have to believe’
Another trip to the podium for Kuss. (Photo: Alexander Hassenstein/Getty Images)
Every stage unfolds like its own story, and Wednesday’s finale was just perfect for Kuss.
When Evenepoel did pounce in the closing 150m, Kuss was all over the wheel of his most dangerous direct rival.
“Apparently everyone wanted to ride a nice pace. That was a little weird, but I’m not going to complain,” Kuss said. “It took a while for the break to pull away. There was also some wind all day, which was not easy.”
So all that added up to keep Kuss in red for another day.
Barring disaster or a split in the bunch due to echelons, Kuss should defend red again in Thursday’s expected mass gallop and carry his 26-second lead to Marc Soler into the favorable ground in the Pyrénées.
With Evenepoel at 1:09 back, Kuss knows the ball is in his corner, and promises he’s not going to over-complicate things in what’s turning out to be an opportunity of a career.
“You always have to believe,” Kuss said. “It’s very simple. I have to continue to do my best every day and enjoy the red jersey every day, as long as I wear it.”