2023-09-13 21:11:00
The man in the red jersey certainly imagined his 29th birthday to be a little different.
Two kilometers before the finish, Jonas Vingegaard (second overall) and Primoz Roglic (third overall) decided without necessity to increase the pace again and leave the American to his fate on the steep ramps.
“At the time of my attack it was so hard, so steep, I just rode at my own pace,” said the eventual stage winner Roglic. The Slovenian admitted that it was “a bit strange” to see his teammate, who was wearing the red jersey, falling behind. “I spoke to him (Sepp Kuss, editor’s note). Everyone drives as fast as they can on such steep climbs.”
Kiss left – Roglic: “A strange feeling”
“Our goal was to win the stage today. We’re first, second and third in the overall classification, that’s exactly what we wanted,” said Vingegaard, who seemed a little chilled by the explosiveness of the situation and added that he was happy, “that Sepp is still in the red jersey”.
According to many experts, the fight for the leadership jersey should have been decided long ago anyway.
Kiss gave Roglic and Vingegaard the go
“Sepp Kuss is clearly stronger than everyone else,” said Eurosport expert Jens Voigt during the live broadcast. The only people who could endanger him were his two teammates, who did exactly that – to the former professional cyclist’s incomprehension: “They just don’t seem to care. I find that astonishing.”
The day before, users on social media had already expressed their incomprehension of Vingegaard’s attack on Kuss on the final climb in Bejes, and even portrayed the Dane as a villain who wanted to ruin the actual noble helper Kuss from his greatest career coup. A day later you could get this impression again.
A post on “X” shortly after the stage shows that Jumbo – Visma is aware of the questionable external representation of the team’s three-way battle. The racing team revealed that Kuss sent a “Go Guys” on the team radio when he realized that he could no longer keep up. Team boss Grischa Niermann, who did not hear the radio message in the car, confirmed that it had been agreed at the beginning of the week that everyone would have free travel.
Confusion over kiss radio message: “Didn’t hear him”
But attacks on one’s own teammate, especially when they occur without pressure from other teams, have a bad aftertaste. Especially when the teammate is someone to whom you owe a lot.
Kuss helped Roglic and Vingegaard achieve great success
“This is sport, not a fairy tale with a happy ending and of course the best should win,” says Voigt, but then clearly restricts himself. “Roglic won the Giro d’Italia this year because he had the most loyal helper in Kuss. Vingegaard also won the Tour de France this year, among other things, only because he had the most loyal helper in Kuss. And now would be the perfect one Moment to give back some loyalty.”
Roglic, three-time winner of the Tour of Spain (2019, 2020, 2021), and the two-time Tour de France winner Vingegaard (2022, 2023) are both “very successful”, have won big races and earned a lot of money. “Would it be presumptuous to hand over some of the luck to the driver who has worked 3,500 kilometers on behalf of his captains this year?!”
Eurosport expert Robert Bengsch also took the same line: “I would have thought that they would wait. That would have been a big statement, along the lines of: ‘You have ridden for us so many times, now we have prepared the Vuelta for you ‘. They could have made it big today.”
Vingegaard: “Would like to see Kuss win the Vuelta”
In front of the running TV cameras, Roglic and Vingegaard appeared innocent and full of compassion and sympathy for their colleague. “I told him to keep fighting and believe in himself. Then he’ll make it,” Roglic told the actual noble helper in red after the race. Vingegaard “hoped that Kuss would keep the red jersey. I would like to see him win the Vuelta.”
Vingegaard: “Hope Kuss wins the Vuelta”
The most important, because the only accomplices to this not all that pious wish, are Vingegaard and Roglic themselves. Neither of them has to do anything other than keep their feet still on the remaining days of the tour and put their own egos aside alongside the American.
“It’s clear: under my direction the race wouldn’t have gone the way it did today,” says Voigt. “But we live in a free world and there is certainly a common team policy, a common tactical direction and I have no say in Jumbo.”
So at first it remains a strange game that Jumbo-Visma plays and that contains a lot of explosive material – especially on an interpersonal level.
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