SEPP KUSS EMERGED from mountain mists clinging stubbornly to the Vuelta a Espana lead by eight seconds on Wednesday as his teammate Primoz Roglic won the stage with another Jumbo rider Jonas Vingegaard finishing second.
Tour de France champion Vingegaard remains second overall but closed the gap on Kuss from 29 to eight seconds on a day of utter dominance by the Dutch team.
Kuss is now in an unexpected position to win the Vuelta.
“I came here with no expectations and was just looking to help out the guys like always. Then I came into this beautiful jersey and I discovered a new level of self-confidence and racing instinct,” said the willowy climber who took the overall lead on stage eight.
The final climb up the Angrilu mountain was 12km at around 10 Sepper cent with visibility limited by fog and clouds where Jumbo’s rivals dropped off the pace one by one.
Defending champion Remco Evenepoel made a go of it and joined an early escape and attacked from there, but was caught before the final reckoning.
Roglic is third overall at 1min 08sec with Team UAE Emirates rider Juan Ayuso fourth but four minutes off Kuss’ pace, while Mikel Landa is up to fifth from seventh.
Roglic won the Giro in May and after Vingegaard stormed the Tour de France in July Jumbo now look unstoppable in their bid to become the first team to win all three Grand Tours with different riders in a single season.
Team boss Grischa Niermann said after the stage: “I think everyone would like to have Sepp in the lead and he’s still in the lead, but they also want to win the stage and we agreed that everybody is allowed to go for it.”
The 3,153.8 kilometre race started with a team time trial in Barcelona on 26 August and ends in Madrid on Sunday after 21 stages.
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