As he paused on the Champs-Élysées after finishing his sixth Tour de France and spent some time with the media, Sepp Kuss was repeatedly reminded of the previous afternoon. Time stretches out on the Tour and it seemed like a long while ago, but just over 24 hours previously he had spurned a glorious shot at a stage victory atop Alpe d’Huez.
“The more I think about it, the more regrets I have,” the Durango climber said of his double crash while leading the race inside the final 10km.
But that still doesn’t add up to many regrets at all. Just as he had maturely dismissed any notion of crushing disappointment or embarrassment atop Alpe d’Huez, Kuss was in Paris with his sense of perspective still operating at 20/20.
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“The nice moments in cycling, the victories, they are pretty fleeting, you know, they pass by really fast. What sticks with me most is the process of getting ready for those big moments, the emotions I feel in the stage, the good feelings I feel in the stage. That’s what I have to remember the most, more than the victories or almost victories.
In that respect, Kuss, despite not being on the team of the overall winner, and despite not winning a stage himself, had one of his best ever Tours.
“For me this was one of the more enjoyable Tours. Sometimes I have it where I’m like ‘I don’t like the Tour de France’, because it’s so unforgiving, so fast, the stakes are so high, that if you’re just missing a few percentage points, it’s hard to enjoy, to be honest.
“But this year I felt really good, really solid, and I enjoyed it more.”
Kuss echoed the general sentiment that this was one of the hardest races he has ever done, with the heat combining with frenetic racing to break yet more records in this ever-quickening modern generation of professional cycling.
“For me it was one of the toughest,” said the 31-year-old. “The course itself was maybe not the hardest, but the way we raced every stage made it really tough, also with the heat in the first half of he race, but he level is so high in the peloton now that everyone wants to win a stage and every stage then becomes crazy fast.
“It’s always hard to keep up with the speed that everyone is going at now, but I just enjoy it so much and I think that helps me get the best out of myself.”
Kuss believes the Giro d’Italia put him in good shape for this Tour. Ironically, he says he felt much better in this Tour compared to the Giro, which on the face of it was more of a success as he guided Jonas Vingegaard to overall victory before winning a stage for himself.
“Sometimes I need a big race in the legs to feel at my best,” he added.
With two Grand Tours in the legs already this season, could Kuss be about to add a third? The Vuelta a España starts on August 22 and, with Visma lacking a clear leader, we could even see ‘GC Kuss’ back in action.
“I hope so,” he said when asked directly about riding the Vuelta. “We’ll see how the body recovers after this one, but why not?”
Sepp Kuss has only once before ridden all three Grand Tours in the same season. That was 2023, and how did it end? On the top step of the Vuelta podium.