Vuelta a Espana 2023: Adam Blythe and Dan Lloyd hail Sepp Kuss’ unimaginable victory – ‘It’s life altering’

Adam Blythe and Dan Lloyd hailed Sepp Kuss’ unimaginable first victory on the Vuelta a Espana, because the American ended the 12 months in spectacular style.

Kuss gained his first Grand Tour and topped a podium consisting of his Jumbo-Visma team-mates Jonas Vingegaard and Primoz Roglic in second and third respectively.

Blythe believes it’ll take time for the magnitude of the American’s achievement to sink in, after ending above Tour de France winner Vingegaard and Giro d’Italia victor Roglic.

“He in all probability will not realise what he is completed till per week down the highway,” Blythe mentioned on The Breakaway. “I believe he mentioned it’s life altering and I am unable to comprehend what it will likely be like for him, and solely he’ll know what it is going to be like.

“I can simply think about that his life will flip the other way up. He’ll be on cloud 9 for a very long time, and there will likely be team-mates that he will not see all the best way till subsequent 12 months’s coaching camp.

“He will not see them in any respect, and when he will get to that coaching camp, he’ll be reliving all these moments. It is going to simply be a little bit halo above his head, and he’ll really feel like a little bit angel.”

The American’s surprising victory has seen questions raised about whether or not Kuss may grow to be a frontrunner or co-leader going into the subsequent Grand Tour, however Lloyd is unconvinced as as to whether that may materialise.

“My intuition is that he will not be asking to enter any Grand Tour subsequent 12 months as sole chief,” Lloyd mentioned. “I believe even earlier than it seemed like he may win this race, he was requested if he would need to lead a Grand Tour.

“He mentioned he may contemplate it if there was one other chief, whether or not that is a sprinter or one other GC rider, however he didn’t need that accountability himself.

“Whether or not that is modified in his thoughts since he gained a Grand Tour, I do not know, however my hunch is he could be pleased to return to being a domestique, or at the very least go into one thing like a Giro d’Italia as co-leader to see what he may do there.

“I actually do not suppose he’ll be going into subsequent 12 months’s Tour de France anticipating to or asking to enter it as co-team chief with Jonas Vingegaard.”

Nevertheless, Blythe believes this win will make Jumbo-Visma’s rivals arise and take discover, and says the 29-year-old goes to be a marked man heading into subsequent 12 months.

Blythe mentioned: “There will likely be plenty of eyes on him subsequent 12 months, in case these massive breakaways occur once more, they’re going to be considering ‘oh no Sepp’s gone into the breakaway’.

“I believe it will be extra of a fear; if he was the rider he’s now within the begin of that tour, they’d have mentioned, ‘there is no such thing as a means we will let Sepp go up the highway, no means.’

“That’ll keep it up, we all know what he can do now. We have identified for a very long time, but when he will get that bIg break once more, he’ll be watched much more intently now.”