Vuelta a España: Sepp Kuss wins stage 15 at Santuario del Acebo

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Sepp Kuss (Jumbo-Visma) claimed a maiden Grand Tour stage win on stage 15 of the Vuelta a España after surviving from the day’s break and holding off a late chase from the GC riders behind. 

The American rider attacked on the final climb of the stage with 6.6km to go and quickly established a winning margin. He held off a late charge from Ruben Guerreiro (Katusha-Alpecin) and Tao Geoghegan Hart (Team Ineos), who finished second and third to take the biggest win of his career.

“It was an incredible atmosphere all the way up the climb. It was a bit of goat track at the beginning but it’s an unbelievable feeling,” Kuss said at the finish.

“It really hasn’t sunk in and I’m lost for words. When the time gap went out to five minutes we were on the last climb and I was following. That was enough time to go for the stage. Tomorrow it’s back to work.”

Jumbo-Visma enjoyed even more success with race leader Primoz Roglic responding when Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) attacked inside the final 6.2km. The pair matched each other all the way to the line with both riders putting considerable time into the likes of Nairo Quintana, Miguel Angel Lopez and Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates).

In the overall classification, Roglic remains 2:25 clear of Valverde in second place with Pogacar now at 3:43 and Lopez further back at 3:59. As for Quintana, he has fallen to over five minutes down, with even his hopes of a podium place now in jeopardy with Movistar likely to ensure that the Colombian now rides for Valverde throughout the final week. Quintana simply had no response when Valverde and Roglic attacked on the punishing slopes towards Santuario del Acebo, and was even dropped by the group containing Lopez and Pogacar.

As for Roglic, he came through the stage thanks in part to the incredible work from his team, most notably Tony Martin. The German kept a 17-rider break in check for most of the stage before the Slovenian matched Valverde’s attack.

The pair rode together for much of the final climb and although the Jumbo rider will take further confidence from his display he will have been reminded just how unpredictable and difficult the Vuelta can be to control after a pulsating first hour saw the pace split to pieces.

However, the day belonged to Kuss. He rode into the early break on the Puerto del Acebo and with the race leader in his ranks understandably sat back as the rest of the breakaway looked to put time into the peloton. 

Even when the break began to splinter on the final climb the 24-year-old refused to buckle before he eventually ventured forward with just over 6km to go.  He quickly caught and dropped lone leader Sergio Samitier and in truth never looked like being in trouble on the final slopes. After the first of two key mountain stages, Jumbo-Visma have plenty of reasons to celebrate but they will know that this race may have a few more twists and turns before Madrid.

How it unfolded

With two critical days in the mountains, the peloton would have been forgiven for starting stage 15 at a relatively sedate pace but there was a clear intent from the GC teams to break the race up once the flag had dropped. 

Movistar and Astana were the two main protagonists as they looked to test Jumbo-Visma’s mettle ahead of the first of four significant climbs.

Mark Padun (Bahrain-Merida), Sander Armée (Lotto Soudal), Vasil Kiryienka (Team Ineos), Casper Pedersen (Team Sunweb) and Jesus Ezquerra (Burgos-BH) held a minute’s lead on the lower slopes of the Puerto del Acebo but the most significant early attack came when Marc Soler jumped clear after Movistar had set a furious pace on the lower slopes of the climb with 138km to go.

The Spaniard led the race over the first climb but the attacks from the main field continued with Kuss joining a four-man move that made contact with Soler on the long descent. 

With 117km to go Kuss’ group and Soler’s band merged and before long the race had a 17-rider break consisting of Soler, Quentin Jauregui (AG2R La Mondiale), Ion Izagirre (Astana Pro Team), Mark Padun (Bahrain-Merida), Pawel Poljanski (Bora-Hansgrohe), Lawson Craddock (EF Education First), Sander Armée (Lotto-Soudal), Tsgabu Grmay (Mitchelton-Scott), Ben O’Connor (Team Dimension Data), Tao Geoghegan Hart, Vasil Kiryienka (Team Ineos), Sepp Kuss (Jumbo-Visma), Dani Navarro, Ruben Guerreiro (Katusha-Alpecin), José Herrada (Cofidis), Oscar Rodriguez, and Sergio Samitier (Euskadi-Murias) clear of the peloton.

Martin's marathon

At that point Kuss’ role was to simply act as a deterrent and mark anything of note from Astana and Movistar but and as the kilometers ticked by it looked as though Kuss’ main focus would turn to support Roglic on the final climb. 

That assumption was based on the fact that the gap between the break and the peloton held at just two or three minutes. Jumbo-Visma patrolled the front of the peloton throughout most of the stage with Tony Martin effectively holding the break on his own as the climbs ticked by.

The German was still on duty when the race reached the final climb but by this point, the gap towards the leaders had moved out to over five minutes and a brief escape from O’Connor, Samitier and Navarro had moved clear by over a minute. However, only Samitier survived as the gradient rose, with the Spaniard distancing Kiryienka, who had latched on after a spirited move from the veteran rider. 

Samitier was still clear of the rest when he rode through the final 7km but Kuss was soon in hot pursuit, having been given the nod to attack by the Jumbo-Visma team car. Within a few metres, the American made it two leaders on the road but he was riding solo almost instantly as Soler struggled to mount a prolonged chase.

Further down the climb, Movistar set the pace and instantly set up an attack by Valverde, who was instantly joined by Roglic. Up ahead, Kuss maintained his momentum to the line, despite a late fightback from Guerreiro and Geoghegan Hart.

When Valverde and Roglic linked up with Soler in the closing stages of the climb it looked as though the Movistar pair would attempt to stretch Roglic but the race leader matched them pedal stroke for pedal stroke.