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At the beginning of stage 13 Soler and Remco are still sitting in 2nd and 3rd and Almeida still looks like a threat. During stage 13 Remco and Soler crater, Landa gives up another 45 seconds to Kuss but Ayuso only gives up 8 seconds and reveals himself to be the biggest threat. Mas gives up time, probably enough to no longer be a threat for the lead, but a podium is still possible.
After Stage 13 when JV hops to 3rd.
Gap from Jonas to Ayuso 1:07
Gap from Primoz to Ayuso 1:00
Gaps are still the same after Stage 14. Ayuso is very much a threat to the podium. Very unlikely a threat for the winā¦ but both Kuss and Roglic could easily have a bad day and Ayuso could potentially hop up to 2nd. Kuss looks like he may be cracking a bit. Roglic has a solid track record of choking when it matters. Jumbo has the sweep, but can they keep it?
Stage 16 Jonas attacks to take the stage hops over Roglic and finishes with a healthier 2:04 back to Ayuso in GC. Roglic is still only 1:00 ahead of Ayuso.
Jumbo probably has the win locked unless both Kuss and JV crack but JV is only showing signs of getting stronger. But the gap between Ayuso and Roglic is still small with more mountain stages coming and with them the opportunity for Roglic or Sepp to crack allowing Ayuso onto the podium.
Stage 17 Roglic and JV attack finally putting Ayuso (plus Landa and Mas) to the sword all but locking down a Jumbo podium sweep. With or without the time bonus Kuss would have retained red but barely. Probably a little too close for comfort, but itās certainly possible the DS told them to ease up. It certainly possible they didnāt listen (weāll have to wait for the Netflix documentary).
With the podium sweep secured Jumbo turns their attention to helping Kuss pad his overall lead.
This is a team that is checking real time wind speed and direction data from riders that go early in a TT to make final wheel decisions when their leaders take off. Egos are egos, but this is a team that makes Sky look like Phonak.
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I dunno, Ayuso had long been dropped by the time Roglic went. If they were really trying to consolidate the podium like that, Vingegaard would have waited with Kuss to pace him to the line. Their tactics only make sense if Kuss cracked, which he very clearly didnāt.
I get that theyāre a very numbers/data driven team, but their messaging and what weāre seeing are so incongruous, it makes me feel like theyāre racing on emotion more than anything else.
I hope there were cameras rolling, would be suuuuper entertaining.
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Agreed
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Welp, clean sweep of the podium. All three grand tours won with different riders. Pretty comprehensive whitewash by Jumbo Visma.
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One way or the other they LET Kuss win. I still think the meme accounts completely missed the plot on this.
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Maybe there is something I missed, but from what I can tell the only way they let him win was by not attacking him while he was in the lead.
Exactly. All this fuss about him defending against attacks from his own team is a tempest in a teacup. It seems to me that they could have moved Jonas into the lead at several different points and pulled on the reins just enough. I am being a broken record on this, I know, but I am convinced to decision to at least TRY and keep Sepp in red was made before the final week and everything after that was trying to carefully balance that with the more important podium sweep.
I donāt have any particular argument against that, but ākeep Sepp in redā reads very differently (to me, at least) than āthey let Kuss win.ā The latter seems dismissive of Seppās efforts, but I might be reading more into this than you intend.
Well yes but no. Iām guessing the conversation likely included telling Jonas and Primoz that the plan had shifted in light Seppās increasing form. If thatās the case some version of āhey guys, we know we said the plan was for one of you to win, but weāre going to do something different nowā. Jonas seemed to have the form to go firmly into the lead but didnāt. Whoās call it was is sort of irrelevant, he took his foot off the gas so as not to pull ahead of his teammate.
Or maybe Iām also underestimating Jumbo and that they already knew that Sepp was going to peak late in the race.
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I think I agree with that assessment. We donāt know, but from the outside looking in I doubt anyone expected Sepp to be the winner before he took the red jersey. Then he did and didnāt collapse in the time trial and things had to change. It just seems to me that Jumbo let things go a day or two longer than they should have before making that change clear to everyone, and that got a bit ugly.
Regardless of how it happened though Iām elated that Sepp won.
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yeah, i find jumboās dominance very suss, but am very happy for sepp and think his win is very crucial for the currently dying American road cycling scene.
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Check that Lemond interview his take on it makes sense. Sport will never be clean but I think itās the cleanest itās been in a long long time.
Jumbo is clearly on a different level right now regardless of what they may or not being doing. Above board they are just better. Best guys. Best staff. Best approach.
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as someone not into bike racing, idk how much sepp kuss will do for dying american biking
people into bike racing are excited about it but average american never heard of him or even if they have they still think hes a european
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Is that her asking him on a first date?
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i donāt think people all knew about lance Armstrong after his first tour win. not saying sepp is the next lance, but just because everyone hasnāt heard of him, doesnāt mean his success wonāt trickle down the ranks.
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Iām slightly into bike racing and didnāt realise heās american til sometime this year.
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I think I only knew from listening to Payson Mcelveys podcasts.
Was good to see the Vuelta this year after listening to this podcast ( pre-Vuelta) where he says he doesnt have GC ambitions person and hes happy in that role.
But youāre not American!
Heās def more well known in CO as heās from here and went to college in Boulder, won a few national championships in collegiate level. Iām not sure how jumbo spotted him. He had one year on a US pro team before they scooped him up and he was still fairly unknown to most.