Sepp Kuss reigns in Utah
For two months before the start of the Tour of Utah, Sepp Kuss was at home in Colorado, training at altitude and preparing for the second half of the season. The 23-year-old is in his debut year in the WorldTour, with LottoNLJumbo, and after a tricky first half of the season, he had finally started to find form, and some confidence, at the Critérium du Dauphiné. After that race, he returned to his native United States to train in the mountains.
Home terrain and the North American races have so far favoured the 23-year-old. In 2017, with Rally Cycling, he took the race lead at the Tour of Utah, finished in the top 10 at the Colorado Classic and was runner-up at the Tour of Alberta. This year, Kuss surpassed all expectation by winning the three mountainous stages and the overall at the Tour of Utah. He put the success down to his extended period training at home.
After a short, 5.3km prologue time trial to kick things off, won by Tejay van Garderen the day before his transfer from BMC to EF-Drapac was announced, the climbingheavy race began with a category 1 climb on stage 1. Van Garderen retained his lead, as Travis McCabe won his first of two stage victories. But on stage 2 Kuss took control, and set up his overall win by impressively soloing away with around 50km to go. After navigating the two rolling stages 3 and 4, won by McCabe and 20-year-old Belgian Jasper Philipsen, the race concluded with back-to-back summit finishes.
On the queen stage to Snowbird, Kuss again rode clear, this time putting 39 seconds into his rivals and extending his lead. A day later, he completed the hat-trick by mercilessly chasing down and dropping compatriot and friend Nathan Brown (EF-Drapac) on the key climb of Empire Pass, which drops down to the finish in Park City. Kuss held off a hot pursuit by Brent Bookwalter and Jack Haig to claim his third stage win of the race and the first GC victory of his career. The young American’s reward: a grand tour debut at the Vuelta a España a few weeks later.