SEPP KUSS DID enough to retain the Vuelta a Espana overall lead on a gruelling 25.8km stage 10 individual time trial won by Italy’s Filippo Ganna on Tuesday.
Ganna of Ineos completed the course around the city of Valladolid in 27:39, although exhausted mountain specialist Kuss still leads the overall standings by 26 seconds from Spaniard Marc Soler.
Belgian Quick-Step rider and defending champion Remco Evenepoel raced in his time-trial world champion rainbow jersey and was 16 seconds slower than Ganna in second on the day.
He is now third overall at 1:09 and crucially extended his lead over Primoz Roglic to 27 seconds and Jonas Vingegaard by over a minute.
Roglic is in fourth and was all smiles as he warmed down after the race, while French rookie Lenny Martinez remains fifth and is expected to do well in the mountains ahead.
Wednesday’s stage 11 from Lerma to La Laguna Negra ends with what should be a hotly contested 6.5km climb to the finish.
Meanwhile, at the Tour of Britain, Dutch rider Olav Kooij made it three wins from three, edging another sprint finish on Tuesday.
Kooij held off the challenge of compatriot Danny van Poppel and Britain’s Ethan Vernon on the 154.7 kilometre race from Goole to Beverley in Yorkshire to match Edvald Boasson Hagen’s achievement of winning three successive stages in the 2009 event.
2022 national road race champion Rory Townsend was the best of the Irish finishers in ninth place, while Ryan Mullen finished 14 seconds adrift of the peloton in 59th, but it was a disappointing day for Sam Bennett who finished 1:46 behind Kooij and the sprint finish.
The Carrick-on-Suir man looks set to call time on his disappointing second spell at Bora-Hansgrohe at the end of the season, with Global Cycling News reporting that he has agreed a two-year deal with French outfit AG2R Citroen.
