Sepp Kuss isn’t a lot given to creating a fuss, and he wasn’t going to make an exception even when he was the sufferer of a crash attributable to a spectator leaning into the highway on stage 15 of the Tour de France.
The North American was one among a number of fallers with 128km remaining after a spectator bearing a cellphone leant into the trail of the peloton. Different riders to come back down in the identical incident included his Jumbo-Visma teammate Nathan Van Hooydonck, Biniam Girmay (Intermarché-Circus-Gobert) and Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers).
Kuss sustained cuts to his elbow and knee within the crash, however he rapidly remounted and re-joined the peloton. He was as soon as extra Jonas Vingegaard’s final man on the ultimate climb of the race. Though Kuss was distanced from the yellow jersey group when Tadej Pogačar’s teammate Adam Yates accelerated inside the ultimate 4km of the ascent of Le Bettex, he remained in sixth place general at day’s finish.
“There was a spectator leaning into the highway, I assume. It simply occurred out of the blue and that’s a part of the Tour, there are lots of people,” Kuss stated of the crash. “Ideally that wouldn’t occur, but it surely’s the largest bike race on the planet and lots of people don’t know precisely what’s occurring.
“There was a narrowing in a city. We had been simply making an attempt to decelerate the peloton to let the break go after which simply on the facet sadly, any person wished to get a selfie. I didn’t actually see it coming.”
Kuss downplayed the gravity of his accidents, insisting that they’d little impression on his efficiency over the rest of the stage, which introduced the peloton over the Col de la Forclaz, Col de la Croix Fry and Col des Aravis forward of the two-part haul to the end.
“No, no, fortunately the adrenaline obtained me by means of the day,” stated Kuss. “I imply you simply must preserve going, there’s nothing else to do about it. It’s inconvenient, but it surely may have been worse, and I nonetheless felt fairly good on the bike.”
Kuss’ group supervisor Richard Plugge was relatively much less conciliatory in regards to the episode, which bore unlucky echoes of the notorious ‘Opi-Omi’ crash on the opening day of the 2021 Tour, when Jumbo-Visma’s Tony Martin was among the many worst affected when a spectator leant into the highway bearing a cardboard signal.
Talking to Wielerflits, Plugge maintained that Kuss would have lasted longer by Vingegaard’s facet within the finale had he not been nursing the consequences of his crash.
“He usually by no means has to try this on a climb like right now,” Plugge stated. “That’s the largest blow of right now: Nathan fell laborious, Dylan [van Baarle] fell, and Sepp fell. That tousled our ways right now. We missed Nathan as a powerful pressure within the early a part of the stage and Sepp on the finish.”
Regardless of, Vingegaard had the power to resist Pogačar’s offensive within the last kilometre to complete in the identical time because the Slovenian and retain his 10-second lead within the general standings because the race breaks for its second and last relaxation day. Like Kuss, Vingegaard appeared nearly resigned to the unpredictability of roadside behaviour, although he made an enchantment to spectators all the identical.
“You additionally can not say that persons are not allowed, however I believe spectators simply must act good,” Vingegaard stated in his post-race press convention. “Don’t stand on the highway and take an image. Simply be on the facet of the highway, not within the highway.”
After using on the entrance all day in a bid to put on down Pogačar on Saturday, Jumbo-Visma had been marginally extra restrained on stage 15, delegating the seemingly indefatigable Wout van Aert to go up the highway within the break. The Belgian’s afternoon led to frustration, nevertheless, as he needed to accept second behind Wout Poels (Bahrain Victorious). “I confirmed right now that I nonetheless have plenty of morale. I’ve by no means misplaced coronary heart,” he stated.
The Vingegaard-Pogačar duel, in the meantime, stays as tight and unpredictable as ever following three tense days within the mountains. Certainly, within the second week of the race, the hole between the 2 has shifted by solely seven seconds, however there may be scope for better separation when the race resumes on Tuesday with a 22km time trial to Combloux.
“It’s going to maintain exploding every single day,” Kuss stated. “It’s tremendous tight and the time trial the day after tomorrow goes to be actually attention-grabbing. I don’t assume anyone can predict what’s going to occur there after which afterwards with a very laborious mountain stage.”
