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, but must survive the ascent of three peaks on stage 18, and a series of rolling hills on stage 20.
His chief threat is his team leader Vingegaard, who says he would love Kuss to win the race.
“We wanted to win the stage and keep the 1-2-3 in the overall,” sid the pale and slender Dane. “I’m happy Sepp is in the jersey and I’d love to see him win this Vuelta.”
With two ascents of the Puerto de la Cruz de Linares on stage 18 the most likely location of any final change Kuss was cool and cheerful at the mountaintop finish in Asturias.
“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 per 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. Evenepoel retains the king of the mountains jersey on 91pts from Vingegaard’s 51.
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.
The Slovenian 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 August 26 and ends in Madrid on Sunday after 21 stages.
