Jonas Vingegaard on Giro stage winner Kuss: ‘I really had to tell him: you have to go for it’

Was Vingegaard happy with his teammate’s stage win in the Giro d’Italia? The day could not have gone better for pink jersey Jonas Vingegaard. The Danish leader of Visma | Lease a Bike spoke after the stage about the perfect day in the Dolomites, where his lead in the general classification was never in danger for a moment.

“We knew that all sorts of things can happen in a stage like this,” Vingegaard said to CyclingProNet. “That is why we made the plan to send Sepp into the breakaway if the climb would only go clear later on, because then he would have a chance of winning the stage. And that was eventually where they went, and he was there.”

“I am incredibly happy for Sepp, and for me it feels special too,” the pink jersey admitted. “He has always been there for me, in all the Grand Tours I have won. And he never asks to be allowed to go for his own chances, even now. I really had to tell him: you have to go for it, you really have to do it. When it works out like that, it is so well deserved.”

“We have had such a good bond for so long, and he always does everything for me, but for everyone. We go way back. That he can now take the occasional win himself is something I am always very happy about,” said the proud leader.

Kuss thereby completed his Grand Tour trilogy of stage wins, after earlier victories in the Tour de France and Vuelta a España. “He just told me he thought it would never happen again, but now it has. I think in a way it also completes his career, so for the whole team it is a special day.”

And Vingegaard himself got through the day smoothly. “But in such a hard stage it is never easy. For me it was more about keeping control and keeping the chance open for Sepp. The team once again showed how strong we are, and because of that I stayed out of trouble, but there is still a hard day to come. We have to stay focused, and we do that automatically, all the way to Rome. We keep doing everything right.”