Wout van Aert is having fun playing with the King of the Mountains, but Visma sees Kuss dropped again

Visma | Lease a Bike seems to be slowly but surely having to put its Vuelta general classification ambitions in the trash. After an excellent first week, Sepp Kuss looked set to contend for a podium finish. But a crash in Stage 8 (the one involving a certain Tadej Pogačar), the American has already lost significant time, twice. And so, after stage 8, Visma mainly focused on the outstanding Wout van Aert.

Van Aert chose to join the large breakaway that formed during the twelfth stage. Competing for the stage win wasn't an option, but that had never been the goal anyway. “It was a very good day. I was part of a large group, which allowed me to efficiently pick up points in the intermediate sprint (for the green jersey, ed.) and also earn points toward the mountains jersey,” he said in the flash interview.

With his uphill sprints, Van Aert frustrated his main rival in the breakaway: King of the Mountains Santiago Buitrago (Bahrain Victorious). Buitrago ultimately earned more points by finishing third, but along the way he lost three uphill sprints to Van Aert. “I had a tough battle with Wout for the points, but that’s fine. In the end, I built up a bigger lead,” said the climber.

After the twelfth stage, Van Aert is in second place in the mountains classification with 30 points. Buitrago now has 52, which means the gap between the two has widened by 10 points. Nevertheless, the Belgian described it as “a pleasant ride,” because he simply feels great. “I feel like my form is really improving. I often feel better when fatigue sets in among the peloton, and that trend is continuing.”

With Van Aert, Visma | Lease a Bike hopes to maintain its momentum, with many stages still to come that should suit him well.

The green jersey and the mountain jersey are two key goals (as Van Aert confirmed afterward), because Kuss has been struggling in the general classification since his crash in Stage 8. After already losing 1.44 minutes to Enric Mas in Stage 9, he lost nearly 4 more minutes in Stage 12.

Kuss has now dropped to 8th place in the standings and feels the heat from several other climbers in top form breathing down his neck. Since Jørgen Nordhagen was also unable to keep up with the leaders, there wasn’t much left for Visma to gain on the final climb.

“Wout had the freedom to go on the attack; the others were instructed to save their energy for the tough finale,” analysed team director Maarten Wynants.

According to official reports, the day’s outcome was partly positive. “In the end, Wout was able to pick up a lot of points along the way, which is a nice bonus. Sepp struggled in the tough final stretch. He lost a little more time than we had hoped for. He dropped a few spots in the standings, but is still in a respectable eighth place.”