Few riders dare ride the Giro, Tour, and Vuelta in one season. But that didn’t stop US favorite Kuss from winning the Vuelta’s red jersey last time he did it.
(Photo: OSCAR DEL POZO/AFP via Getty Images)
Updated August 18, 2026 11:50AM
Sepp Kuss isn’t slowing down now that he’s a husband, father, and owner of stage wins in all three grand tours.
Visma-Lease a Bike confirmed Tuesday that Colorado’s climbing king will line up for his third grand tour of 2026 this weekend at the Vuelta a España.
Few athletes dare to try to ride all three of the Giro d’Italia, Tour de France, and Vuelta a España in one season.
Even fewer are robust enough to pull it off.
In fact, the last man to successfully race all three of the season’s three-weekers was … you guessed it … Kuss in 2023.
And it worked out pretty well for him that time around.
In 2023, GC Kuss famously capped his sweep of the grand tours by rising above a team leadership conflict with Primož Roglič and Jonas Vingegaard to clinch a palmarès-defining red jersey victory.
But don’t expect to see Kuss throwing haymakers at 9-star favorite Tadej Pogačar in the hunt for a second maillot rojo in 2026.
With Vingegaard out for the rest of the season, Visma-Lease a Bike is hell-bent on stage wins at this year’s Vuelta a España.
Kuss will team up with the returning Wout van Aert and rising speedster Matthew Brennan as “The Killer Bees” look to harvest victories after a disappointing Tour de France.
There’s no space for Matteo Jorgenson on Visma’s Vuelta roster.
The Boise native suffered an off-key Tour de France due to crashes and sickness and is likely refocusing on the Canadian GPs and the Montréal road worlds.
Visma-Lease a Bike: Vuelta a España 2026
Wout van Aert
Matthew Brennan
Sepp Kuss
Jørgen Nordhagen
Ben Tulett
Steven Kruijswijk
Christophe Laporte
Bruno Armirail
Why Sepp Kuss cannot get enough of the Vuelta a España
Kuss famously overcame a leadership conflict at Jumbo-Visma to win the 2023 Vuelta a España. (Photo: Alexander Hassenstein/Getty Images)
Kuss will start this year’s Vuelta with a whopping 54 race days already in his legs after what’s been one of his best seasons yet.
The 31-year-old was key to Vingegaard winning the Giro d’Italia in May and picked up a stage win along the way.
His breakaway victory on one of the hardest days at the corsa rosa made him the 116th rider in history to win a stage at all three grand tours.
Only an unusual loss of his trademark “Kuss cool” prevented him from backing that up with a blockbuster Tour de France stage win last month on Alpe d’Huez.
But after finishing 13th overall at the Tour, Kuss hinted to the media he wasn’t done.
The Andorra resident famously loves racing in the heat and steeps of the Vuelta a España. He hasn’t missed what he considers his “home” grand tour since 2018.
And better still for Kuss, the late-summer slot suits his slow-humming engine, one that gets better as the season goes on.
Some say the fatigue of Kuss’ 2023 grand tour sweep blunted his legs in 2024. But Sepp clearly loves racing in Spain too much for that to be a problem.