American Cyclist becomes first to win Grand Tour in over a decade! – KTH

An American has won a grand tour!

Sepp Kuss became the first American to win a grand tour since 2013 when Chris Homer won the Vuelta a España!

Sepp Kuss took the general classification lead of the Vuelta a España after Stage 8 on 2 September which saw the cyclist race through the Valencian Province of Alicante on the Mediterranean Sea coast from Dénia to Xorret de Catí.

After this, Sepp Kuss never failed to keep the general classification leading red jersey, and Sepp Kuss and his Dutch Team Jumbo–Visma continued to stay first as they went into Stage 20 from Manzanares el Real to Guadarrama in the Community of Madrid.

This penultimate stage would effectively determine the champion, similar to the Tour de France.

And Sepp Kuss came out strong finishing within the top 40 (#36) and within 11 minutes (05H 10′ 06″) of the stage leader, good enough to stay 1st overall by 17 seconds over his Danish teammate Jonas Vingegaard, and 1 minute and 8 seconds over his Slovenian teammate Primoš Roglič as both finished #2 and #3 respectively in the general classification behind Sepp Kuss.

Therefore, it was a clean 1, 2, and 3 sweep by Team Jumbo–Visma.

The moment of the competitive stages came on Saturday 16 September on Stage 20 as Sepp Kuss, Jonas Vingegaard, and Primoš Roglič all finished together at the same time, side by side.

Stage 21 was the final stage from Hipódromo de la Zarzuela to the center of Madrid at the Paisaje de la Luz. It is here where the crowd cheered on Sepp Kuss as he lifted the plate to win the 2023 Vuelta a España on Sunday 17 September.

What is the meaning of this?

For those that are not cycling fans, you probably only know about the Tour de France, but at the highest level of cycling, there are two other tours you should know as well: the Vuelta a España and the Giro d’Italia.

These other two races plus the Tour de France are considered the Grand Tours, similar to the majors in golf and the grand slams in tennis.

In addition, there is the UCI World Tour, which the grand tours are a part of. This is the league, like the PGA or ATP, and it includes many cycling tours apart of this. The grand tours just earn you the most points.

What is historic about this achievement is that no American man had won a grand tour since 2013, and the number of grand tour wins by all Americans is quite low, especially now that 7 have been taken away:

Greg LeMond (born: Lakewood, California) – 1986, 1989, and 1990 Tour de France winner

Andrew Hampsten (born: Columbus, Ohio) – 1988 Giro d’Italia winner

Lance Armstrong (born: Richardson, Texas) – 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, and 2005 Tour de France winner (all titles have been stripped)

Chris Homer (born: Okinawa, Japan) – 2013 Vuelta a España

Sepp Kuss (born: Durango, Colorado) – 2023 Vuelta a España

Who is Sepp Kuss?

Sepp Kuss was a mountain biking star at the University of Colorado at Boulder winning the cross-country national championship in 2014 and 2015, as well as the short track national championship in 2014.

After this, he went into 2016, originally racing for amateur team Gateway Harley Davidson / Trek, before joining professional team Rally Cycling, now called Human Powered Health, a UCI Pro Series team, the level beneath the UCI World Tour. In 2018, he would join his current Team Jumbo-Visma.

Sepp Kuss won the 2018 Tour of Utah, as well as some notable stages including Stage 15 in the 2019 Vuelta a España, Stage 15 in the 2021 Tour de France, and Stage 6 in this year’s 2023 Vuelta a España.

This is Sepp Kuss’s best achievement yet and one of the best achievements by any American in cycling to date.

You can watch the extended highlights of the celebratory Stage 21 below:

Side Note:

Team Jumbo-Visma became the first team to sweep the top 3 spots in the general classification at the Vuelta a España in 57 years. In addition, Primož Roglič won the Giro d’Italia and Jonas Vingegaard won the Tour de France, while Team Jumbo-Visma won the Tour de France and Vuelta a España team classification. This means Team Jumbo-Visma became the first team ever to have a rider win each Grand Tour in one season! It was a very successful season for the Team Jumbo-Visma.

As for Sepp Kuss, he became the first rider to complete all three grand tours in one season and win a grand tour in 66 years, while becoming the first and only to win the last grand tour after having completed all three.

All photos from La Vuelta a España website.