This week, Sepp Kuss got his 2026 campaign underway at the Tour of Oman, but things took a wrong turn after just two days. The American racer was forced out of the race overnight before Monday's stage 2 due to illness.
Still, Kuss, who opened his account with a 33rd place at the Muscat Classic, remains on course for his main season goals. The Volta a Catalunya is next on his programme in March, before he assists Visma-Lease a Bike leader Jonas Vingegaard as the Dane aims for the Giro d'Italia-Tour de France double.
Speaking to WielerFlits in Oman before his withdrawal, Kuss, who is set to be Vingegaard's number one climbing domestique in Italy and France, discussed the recent shock retirement of Simon Yates and how that affects his role in the team.
"For me, without Simon, not much really changes," Kuss clarified.
"I think it changed in terms of the planning of the calendar and everything. For sure, there were races he would've been a leader in where you have to change things around.
"For the Tour, you always want to bring your strongest team possible, and without him, you also have to look for different riders or to change the strategy a bit.
"In the end, you have to move on, and it's not like you can easily replace someone like Simon in the last minute. Or maybe even in a year or two, it's hard to replace someone who's such a good rider."
Kuss' Giro-Tour schedule means the 2023 Vuelta a España winner may not appear at the Grand Tour he's raced every year since turning pro back in 2018. It's still a possibility, but Italy and France are the priorities.
"If there's one race I don't like to miss, it's the Vuelta, so we'll see how the season goes," Kuss said.
"I'm really looking forward to doing the Giro. It's a race I've only done twice, so for me it's nice to do different things. Going there is actually really motivating for me because it's a bit different from my normal programme.
"After that, we'll see how everything goes for the Tour and the rest of the season."
Vingegaard and Kuss will be joined in Visma's provisional Giro squad by climbers Davide Piganzoli, Bart Lemmen, and Wilco Kelderman, while Victor Campenaerts, Timo Kielich, and Edoardo Affini complete the lineup.
At the Tour, where the team will once again face the momentous task of taking on Tadej Pogačar, Vingegaard, Kuss, and Campenaerts are once again the provisional team. Wout van Aert, Matteo Jorgenson, Ben Tulett, and French duo Christophe Laporte and Bruno Armirail are set to fill out the strong eight-man selection.
Kuss was questioned about the relative strength of Visma and rival squads this July, where revamped Lidl-Trek and Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe teams – led by Juan Ayuso and Remco Evenepoel, respectively – will be among the challengers.
"I think we all know how strong the other teams are. You can't argue with the fact that UAE, Red Bull and Lidl-Trek all have really strong teams and riders on paper," Kuss said.
"But that's still different from what we have, which is a really united team. And we also have one of the strongest riders. In the end, that's what you need – a strong leader. We still have that, and we can't look too much at the rest."
