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How did Vuelta a España winner Sepp Kuss avoid getting bogged down and burned out by five months of grand tour racing?
Simple.
He just really loves riding bikes.
Jumbo-Visma head of performance Mathieu Heijboer told Velo that Kuss was able to “slam” the 2023 Giro d’Italia, Tour de France, and Vuelta a España thanks to an insatiable thirst for two-wheeled thrills.
“Sepp’s success seems to come from the fact he just loves riding bikes. It’s never a challenge for him to go out training, he never finds it a stress,” Heijboer said. “He never really gets ‘weighed down’ preparing for a race.”
Also read:
Racing three grand tours in five months is a huge physical feat, but one that’s made relatively achievable thanks to advancements in the sciences of training, nutrition, and recovery.
Instead, it’s the mental toll that stops most pros even considering the grand tour slam.
Time away both on the road and at training camps, and the 24/7 dedication to finding peak performance, are cited as being as much of a hurdle as the countless hours in the saddle.
“A lot of riders preparing for grand tours build up a lot of mental load because they want to be at their very best shape for the Tour de France or whatever. So it becomes a mental load and a physical one,” Heijboer told Velo.
“For Sepp, it’s different. He’s one of the few riders who don’t necessarily get a lot of stress going to a grand tour. He really enjoys it. Of course, it’s his job, but he never sees a problem in riding.”
Kuss found a way to make his high-pressure, high-pay job a year-long joyride.
His off-season is about railing trails and guiding touring camps in Colombia. Focussed racing workouts obviously don’t get him down either.
“I still love the bike. It’s a simple sport at the end of the day. To train, you just go out on your bike and adventure around,” Kuss told Velo earlier this year.
“The data side [of training] interests me but I know myself and what motivates me, and that’s riding my bike, the exploring, the adventure.”
Kuss’ boyhood coach Chad Cheeney believes his former athlete’s easygoing approach to all-things training helped him progress toward where he is now.
“Sepp always seemed unique in that he’s very level-headed and a kind of ‘go with the flow’ athlete,” said Cheeney, who guided Kuss through his teen years racing MTB with Durango Devo.
“You try to help your athletes learn to take the stress out of their lives and enjoy the sport so they could perform their best. He was always good at that, and I think he’s still doing that now.”
‘We needed him to be 100 percent in his comfort zone to race his best’
Kuss stayed home between grand tours rather than joining teammates at altitude camps. (Photo: Alexander Hassenstein/Getty Images)
A grand tour triple is seen as so demanding that Geraint Thomas joked Kuss’ 2023 calendar was “stupid.”
Yet in some ways, Kuss’ three-peak summer makes a lot of sense.
The recently-turned 29-year-old wasn’t drawn into intermediate tune-up races and the mental drain that comes with them. His total race days for 2023 are not much higher than that of his champion teammates Vingegaard and Roglič.
Furthermore, Kuss spent the short turnarounds between the Giro, Tour, and Vuelta at home with his wife and pup rather than in a team hotel high in the Sierra Nevada or French Alps.
“For Sepp to do all three grand tours we had to make sure he was relaxed and happy between each,” said Heijboer, who also works as Kuss’ personal coach. “We needed him to be 100 percent in his comfort zone to race his best.”
Living in Andorra means Kuss is lucky enough to sleep at a moderate level of altitude (c.1,500m) in a mountain enclave packed with upper-category ascents.
And with a buzzing community of WorldTour pros in the area, Kuss had all the training buddies he could wish for.
“We discussed how to approach those building periods with Sepp to see how he would be happiest. He felt it was too much stress to go to altitude, so he stayed home the whole time before the Tour and the Vuelta,” Heijboer said. “He felt best there, and we think that’s important to performance.”
#GCKuss?
Vingegaard and Roglič typically shoulder the stress when Kuss is racing (Photo: Tim de Waele/Getty Images)
Kuss’ love of the bike and low-stress psyche was fundamental to him thriving through his grand tour triple and becoming the USA’s first Vuelta champion in a decade.
Heijboer points to how Kuss’ typical role as a mountain domestique actually enabled his rise from helper to maillot rojo winner.
“He went into every race knowing there was no unreasonable expectation from him in terms of doing a GC. He just knew that in the biggest stages he has to be there for his leader,” Heijboer said in the Vuelta’s third week.
“And that’s why I think his overall stress level during the year was pretty low, and so also why his performance was so high. Especially because going out for a ride or for training is not a challenge for him.”
Yet Kuss’ relationship with riding could curb his future as a grand tour contender. He suggested last week that he still sees his future as much as a helper as in being a leader.
“I still like my job as a domestique because I can relax and switch off during the race,” Kuss said. “After this Vuelta, I’m more exhausted mentally than physically.”
If Kuss were to take another ride in the Jumbo-Visma hotseat it likely wouldn’t also come with the strain of another grand tour trilogy. Yet the preparation it would entail could shift the Coloradan’s mindset far from where it seemed to be through 2023.
“A few years ago, Sepp and the team were more focused on him doing good GC results, so he started doing some more time trial work. Almost the moment he started taking the TT super seriously, his performance went worse because he wasn’t enjoying things,” Heijboer said.
“So for him, the easy approach and taking it as it comes is probably the best way.”
Yet if the world does see more #GCKuss in the future, he’ll no doubt find a way to take it all in his stride.
OH MY GOD THEY PUT IT ON THE BIKE https://t.co/EFYvgq2Tcy
— GC KUSS (@GCSeppKuss) September 16, 2023