LA NUCIA, Spain (Velo) — When Visma-Lease a Bike unveiled its star-studded roster for 2025, Sepp Kuss was noticeably absent.
Wout van Aert, Marianne Vos, Matteo Jorgenson, and Jonas Vingegaard shared the stage with new signings Simon Yates and Pauline Ferrand-Prévot.
Where was the 2023 Vuelta a España champion?
He later casually strolled past the hubbub almost unnoticed until the journalistic horde spotted him and swooped in.
“For the kind of person I am, I’d rather be out of the spotlight,” Kuss said. “It makes it easier.
“For guys like Jonas and Wout, it’s not easy having that constant pressure and attention, but different people handle it differently,” he said.
In 2023, after becoming the first American male in a decade to claim victory in a grand tour at the Vuelta a España, the Colorado climber catapulted into fame that he never sought.
“GC Kuss” was born and becoming an instant celebrity left his head spinning.
“It’s hard to say if the pressure affected me, but it was something totally new, totally different,” Kuss said. “It’s easy to say it won’t affect you, but it does.”
The hesitant star
Being at the edge of the frame will be just fine for Kuss in 2025.
He was never looking for the spotlight or outright leadership roles when the stars aligned in 2023.
Visma-Lease a Bike (then Jumbo-Visma) swept all three grand tours that season, and Kuss rode into the Vuelta’s red jersey almost on a lark.
After an internecine internal power struggle, Kuss held on to the overall victory to join the elite club of American grand tour winners.
Kuss became the accidental GC leader.
“It’s a role that I never have been in besides from the Vuelta in 2023,” he told reporters, including Velo. “Even the Vuelta in 23, it was not even remotely on my radar to be a leader in a grand tour, and it turned out to be that way.”
Kuss, 30, has made a career of being the last man in the mountains for a top GC leader, be it Vingegaard or Primož Roglič. The occasional stage win was perfect.
Wout van Aert y Sepp Kuss, primeras estrellas de la Clásica Jaén Paraíso Interior
La 4ª edición de la Clásica Jaén Paraíso Interior prevista para el próximo 17 de febrero, comienza a definir su parrilla de participantes, el equipo neerlandes Visma ha confirmado su presencia en pic.twitter.com/UO70r9RdHp— Nieves Moya (@NievesMoya) January 15, 2025
Yet after a rough 2024 — when he missed the Tour de France for the first time in five years and with expectations piled high — he’s keen to get back to the super-domestique role.
“It’s a role I really like, it’s a role that’s a lot easier than being a leader in a grand tour, and it’s a role I can do quite well,” Kuss said.
“I would not say that I am looking for leadership in a grand tour or I am looking for the opposite,” he said. “It’s showing up in my best version of myself, and doing my best to help and see what comes from that.”
‘It wasn’t the best season for me’
Kuss is determined to reset in 2025 after a challenging season.
A late COVID-19 infection sidelined him from the Tour de France, and although he won the Vuelta a Burgos in August, he couldn’t find his trademark consistency at the Vuelta a España, finishing a distant 14th overall.
Something was off, and now he’s doubling down on his preparation to reclaim his status as the peloton’s most fearsome climbing domestique.
“I want to build up a better base than I had in 2024, which is what I missing at the beginning of the year,” Kuss said. “It wasn’t the best season for me.”
For a rider who had enjoyed a string of consistent, setback-free seasons, the challenges of 2024 were also something new.
“Until then I always had pretty good years, without any bad luck or illnesses, so it was the first season that I had any setbacks,” Kuss told Velo. “But not every year is a perfect year and not every season is an upward trajectory. I just have to roll with the bad luck and normal setbacks when they happen.”
VISMA LEASE A BIKE TOUR DE FRANCE 2025 ROSTER:
Jonas Vingegaard
Simon Yates
Matteo Jorgenson
Sepp Kuss
Victor Campenaerts
Tiesj Benoot
Wout van Aert
+1 more riderℹ️: Wielerflits pic.twitter.com/vWZBwk2KjR
— Lukáš Ronald Lukács (@lucasaganronald) January 14, 2025
Kuss retains the team’s confidence, and he’s already part of the formidable Tour de France squad that Visma-Lease a Bike is assembling to take on Pogačar in July.
“I believe Jonas can win the Tour again,” Kuss said. “He can take a lot of confidence from last year’s Tour, coming there with less-than-ideal preparation and already delivering amazing performances.
“We know how good Pogačar is, but Jonas is focused, and as a team, we’re working to do even better at the things we already do well.”
Visma counting on Kuss comeback
Kuss might not have been center stage this week, but team brass is counting on him to return as Vingegaard’s wingman in the mountains.
Grischa Niermann, Visma’s head of racing, told Velo that Kuss remains at the heart of the team’s plans.
“Hopefully that he steps up again [Kuss] He didn’t have a perfect season, and in the Vuelta he wasn’t where he wanted to be,” Niermann said. “Everyone loves Seppy, we believe in him, and that’s why he’s part of the Tour team.”
With the addition of Simon Yates to the roster, Niermann said the team expects the pairing of Kuss and Yates to provide even more explosive support for Vingegaard in the high mountains.
“We’re not fitting someone in front or behind,” Niermann said of Yates’ position in the team hierarchy. “In general, I’d expect Sepp and Simon both being really really good in the Tour in climbing support.”
Kuss echoed the sentiment that Yates brings an extra alley in the high mountains where the Eagle from Durango was usually flying solo.
“To make the difference now in the mountains you need riders like [Yates] who can accelerate at the right moments. You don’t make a big difference but just riding a hard pace,” Kuss said. “You need the right guys at the right moment, because the level is so high, you need specific riders for specific moments.”
‘GC Kuss’ no more? Not quite
For Sepp Kuss, returning to his role as one of the peloton’s most fearsome climbers is the ultimate focus for 2025.
That’s where all of his successes have come from, and where he knows his strengths can shine the brightest.
Being an outright GC leader isn’t his thing, but he knows that if he’s riding with the best in the mountains, that’s where magic can open happen.
“For me, if there is an opportunity there, I will take it as I have in the past,” Kuss explained. “Also in the past, whenever I’ve performed, it’s never in a way when I knew upfront that I am the one to perform.”
Kuss has no ambitions to step back into the GC firestorm, instead preferring to focus on doing what he knows he does best.
“I am not looking to overtake anyone on the team,” he said. “We have some super good riders. I want to help them first, and see what I can get out of it as well.”