![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/xKuss-Sepp-by-Naike-Erenozaga-1200x800.jpg.pagespeed.ic.qSLa5-2Tv_.jpg\")
Sepp Kuss, left, celebrates with Jonas Vingegaard after the Dane had won stage 2 at La Vuelta on his way to overall victory last year (Photo: Naike Ere\u00f1ozaga)<\/p>\nSepp Kuss, left, celebrates with Jonas Vingegaard after the Dane had won stage 2 at La Vuelta on his way to overall victory last year (Photo: Naike Ere\u00f1ozaga)<\/p>\n
Sepp Kuss has said while the sudden and immediate retirement of his former Visma-Lease a Bike team mate, Simon Yates, came out of the blue, it was also typical of the British rider\u2019s personality. The American said Yates own unique approach to life.<\/p>\n
He also didn\u2019t think there was any other, yet-to-emerge, reason for Yates deciding to call it quits, and announcing it in January while he was the reigning Giro d\u2019Italia champion.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s taken us by surprise. It\u2019s a shame for us to lose him from our Tour plans, but we have to move on without him,\u201d Kuss told AS of losing Yates as the team was set to try and help Jonas Vingegaard win the Tour de France again this year.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you know him, it\u2019s not that unusual,\u201d he laughed of Yates deciding to quit racing in the manner he did. \u201cSimon is a really nice guy, but he has his own way of doing things, and the thought of quitting has probably crossed his mind, that\u2019s all.\u201d<\/p>\n
Though winning the Tour is the main goal this year for Vingegaard, and the team, the Dane has decided to take on the Giro d\u2019Italia this year for the first time. He is expected to win that and then go on to the Tour and try and stop Tadej Poga\u010dar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) winning his fifth Tour, and his third in a row.<\/p>\n
Kuss, who the Vuelta in 2023, will go to the Giro in support of Vingegaard and he believes the decision to shake up his team leader\u2019s pre-Tour schedule has instilled a new energy in him.<\/p>\n
\u201cI see him more motivated than in previous years because before he had the same schedule leading up to the Tour. If things didn\u2019t go well there, it felt like you\u2019d lost the whole year,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cGoing to the Giro will take a lot of pressure off him and give him a different perspective heading into the Tour. It\u2019s the most important race for everyone, but I think it\u2019s good that he has different challenges and is stepping out of his comfort zone.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kuss also believes the move from UAE to Lidl Trek by Juan Ayuso will stand to him this year as he will be able to step out of the shadow of Poga\u010dar.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe change of scenery will do him a world of good because at UAE he didn\u2019t have the freedom of a top rider,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cA cyclist like that doesn\u2019t want to be working for anyone, even if it\u2019s Pogacar. A rider like Ayuso wants to win, and I think he\u2019ll be fine at Trek. This year and in the future, he\u2019ll be a very important rival.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sepp Kuss, left, celebrates with Jonas Vingegaard after the Dane had won stage 2 at La Vuelta on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":389382,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-389381","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-cycling","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389381","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=389381"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389381\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/389382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=389381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=389381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=389381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}