Sepp Kuss is a dying breed in professional cycling: 'It's a good formula for me'

Sepp Kuss finished 5th at the 2026 Vuelta a España on Sunday. It was an impressive feat, given that the 32-year-old American completed all three Grand Tours in a single season for the second time in his career. The last time someone did that? Kuss himself, in 2023, the year he won the red jersey. Why does he seems to be only rider in the pro peloton who wants to ride all three in a year?

In 2026, Kuss’s Grand Tour story reads like the tale of a cyclist from a different era. In May, he won the queen stage of the Giro d’Italia in the Dolomites from a breakaway—the stage victory that was still missing from his palmares. “I’m away from home for many months,” Kuss said afterward. “Performances like this require enormous sacrifices.”

During the Tour de France—after Visma | Lease a Bike’s team leader Jonas Vingegaard had dropped out—he battled twice for the win on Alpe d’Huez: in Stage 19, he finished fourth; a day later, he crashed twice on the descent, just as victory was almost within his grasp. He ultimately finished third. After the Tour, Kuss immediately stated that he was also eager to ride the Vuelta a España.

While there have been more riders in recent years who have completed all three Grand Tours in a single season, Kuss certainly belongs to a dying breed. In cycling history, only 36 riders have finished all three Grand Tours in a single year. In 2023, the last time Kuss did so, he even became only the second rider ever to win a Grand Tour in the same year he completed all three.

He joined Gastone Nencini in a select group of two, as Nencini had done the same in 1957. In a sport where race days are becoming fewer and training days and high-altitude training camps are on the rise, Kuss continues to focus primarily on racing.

The strain of nine weeks of racing seems to have little effect on the climber. “I’ve never really known it any other way, because I’ve done it before and know how my body reacts,” he told Cyclingnews.

Perhaps the most striking aspect of his 2023 and 2026 Grand Tour seasons is that Kuss may have reached his peak form in the Vuelta. A fifth-place finish in the overall standings, following a fantastic move by Visma | Lease a Bike on Stage 20, proved once again that it’s still possible: race, race, race.

"Physically, it's a good combination, a good formula for me," said the protagonist himself, who will be ready for a few weeks off the bike.