Visma's Vuelta prep: Zingle impresses in Denmark, Kuss scouts key stage, and Jorgenson heads to U.S.

Americans Matteo Jorgenson and Sepp Kuss are coming off the Tour de France, where they helped team leader Vingegaard to second place. Kuss is currently in Andorra, where he is building up the necessary kilometers. On Wednesday, he rode a 195-kilometer ride with over 3,300 meters of climbing. It wasn't a high-intensity training session, but at least his legs are warmed up for the race he won in 2023.

Kuss lives in Andorra, which will come in handy in this Vuelta. The sixth stage finishes in the tiny country, and Kuss knows those roads like the back of his hand. On Monday, the 30-year-old American managed to scout the last two climbs of that stage: the Col de la Comella and the climb to Pal were part of a morning ride.

Jorgenson also returned home, but not to Nice. Kuss's compatriot, who is four years his junior, has been living on the Côte d'Azur for some time, but this time he opted to stay in his home country. The former Movistar rider was born in California and grew up in Idaho, but this time he chose Montana. The state lies on the Canadian border and has beautiful mountains in the west. Jorgenson is only too happy to take advantage of that.

He mainly does short rides: the climber uses distances of 55 and even 35 kilometers to loosen up his legs after a grueling and disappointing Tour de France. On Monday, it was time for a slightly more serious 120-kilometer ride. In such a relatively short ride, he managed to cram in 2,600 meters of elevation gain. He took the KOM on a few challenging climbs, so his legs seem to be in good shape!

For new signing Axel Zingle, this week is not about training. The Frenchman is racking up kilometers in the Tour of Denmark in preparation for his first Vuelta, and his first Grand Tour with Visma | Lease a Bike. It earned him third place in the second stage, and that resulted in impressive Strava data. It shows that in the last 10 kilometers, he rarely went below 60 kilometers per hour...