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Even in bad times he doesn’t know how to hide that shy but fun smile of his, that affable and open character that connects with cycling fans. This was evident at the start of the Volta Catalunya yesterday, their mass bath in Sant Feliu de Guíxols. Sepp Kuss (Durango, United States; 29 years old), Pep Kuss for Catalan fans because he lived in Girona (his wife Noemí is from Tiana) and now he does it in Andorra, he had a hard time on the ramps of the Angliru of the Vuelta of the course previous because his teammates Vingegaard and Roglic showed him the license plate and he saw losing the leader’s jersey, also the opportunity to win a grand tour. But Mikel Landa appeared to give him rhythm and do him an unexpected favor, as he held on to the lead for seconds. Smile to the song. Although that night, for once, he became a little taciturn.
He had a hard time sleeping, thoughts flying through his head non-stop. “I was thinking about how Roglic and Vingegaard saw me because I was not only competing against others but also against them, my teammates. It was a bit strange, a situation that I had never experienced until then, neither the team nor cycling in general,” he explains to EL PAÍS from the Visma-Lease hotel in Sant Feliu de Guíxols, after dark and close to a small cove. the most flirtatious; “It was very interesting because I had spent almost my entire career working for them and I know that in cycling there are never gifts, but this time I was wearing the jersey. The roles had changed a little and I thought they still looked at me as the usual gregarious and not as a leader who could have the opportunity to do something different.”
He felt helplessness and even a hair of anger, but he didn’t raise his voice either. The feelings were intermingled and she didn’t know if the realities were also mixed. “I thought that for once they could run for me, but it was a pretty strange situation because I didn’t know how far I could go. That’s why she couldn’t ask for anything if she was going to fail later…” she assumes. But in the end the team accepted that he had the legs to win and he did not fail, champion of the Vuelta in a season in which he participated in the big three.
Victory clicked for Kuss. “Now I know I can be a winner,” he summarizes; “I have that confidence that perhaps I lacked before.” Although he clarifies: “But you cannot put the mentality of a winner in a gregarious person. And I don’t have the composure to win no matter what. I love winning, but also being part of the team and doing important things with riders better than me.”
These are the limits that Kuss sets for himself mentally because, he explains, being a leader requires more wear on the head than on the legs. “I still have to find my place mentally, know how I am going to deal with the pressure. I have never been the only leader. I have to know how to deal with it,” he agrees. Although he clarifies that it is not something he has worked on and that perhaps, depending on how, he considered doing it with a psychologist. “We will see. I am quite calm and I know how to compartmentalize problems…”, he indicates. Besides, he is quite used to suffering.
As a child and through family inheritance, Kuss dedicated himself to cross-country skiing because his father was a coach and his grandfather was also closely linked to the sport, since in Durango winters are only understood under a large blanket of snow. “They were very hard training, very intense, constant suffering, always with the taste of blood in your mouth. And although it is nothing like cycling, I think that all that work helped me to have resistance to suffering,” he slides; “although I prefer the suffering of the mountain than that of being in the middle of a fan, eh?”
It remains to be seen what the season will be like for Kuss, who will participate in the Tour and the Vuelta – this year he will not do so in the Giro because it is no longer what it was, because now he can look down and not always up – and not He will do so from the beginning as a luxury gregarious, a condition that he has earned and that favors the fact that Roglic left for Bora, upset because not everyone ran for him. The North American knows that he has to improve in the time trials — “I have worked on it in the preseason, but it is not a question of watts but of my head because I do not feel comfortable on those bikes,” he points out — and that he competes possibly against the best generation of cyclists in the story because, he says, Pogacar, Vingegaard, Evenepoel, Roglic and some more offer spectacle to the public and suffering to the peloton.
“You have to be prepared for each day,” he accepts; “But I have earned that right to see how I feel and how I respond at the beginning of a great lap. If I am there to lead, to share the leadership with a partner or to run for another,” she resolves. Although he is clear about what his leadership role would be like: “I would like to create, create, a good environment in the team so that everyone feels good and important, that they are happy to do something for others. I will not give a speech before the stage, but I will lead by my actions,” he anticipates. It is his character, the sympathy made a cyclist. “I don’t know why I’m liked, maybe because of my low profile, because this is a hobby for many people and we can’t be above anyone,” he says. Although he clarifies: “Also, I am very happy. I never imagined that he would be a professional cyclist, that he would ride the grand tours, that he would win stages or races. Every step I take is a surprise and I am very happy to be able to live these special and unexpected moments.”
Now, in the Volta he is the tip of the spear, the strong cyclist of the Dutch team. “He has come here as a leader, he knows that the spotlight is on him for racing in Catalonia, and the truth is that he wins over everyone because of his way of being. He is very friendly, very simple and always has good words for everyone,” they say from within the Visma-Lease team. He picks up the baton. “The goal is to win a stage and the sixth, Berga, would be very cool,” he says with joy on his face but with ambition in his eyes. It is the duality of Kuss, gregarious or leader, companion or champion.
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