As Wielerflits reports, season 2 of the Visma team’s All In docuseries reveals that Sepp Kuss raced the 2023 Giro d’Italia while sick with COVID-19.
Kuss reportedly says in the show that he was experiencing “mild symptoms,” and thus stayed in the race – where he played a key support role for Primož Roglič, who went on to win.
Last year’s Giro was particularly impacted by the virus. Jumbo’s own team had two late replacements just before the race due to COVID-19, while early GC leader Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-Quick Step) was one of several riders to get sick and leave mid-race.
Jumbo-Visma reportedly deliberated on how to handle Kuss’s own case, but decided to leave him in the race, apparently due to the fact that he was deemed not especially contagious. He was nonetheless kept isolated from teammates, and the docuseries apparently shows him talking tactics with Roglič via videochat.
Staying at the race in support of Roglič, Kuss proved especially valuable when he helped the Slovenian keep the gap to an attacking João Almeida and Geraint Thomas manageable on stage 16. Roglič went on to take over the race lead in the time trial on the penultimate stage, ultimately winning the Giro d’Italia.
For his part, Kuss kept on riding Grand Tours last season after the COVID-19-impacted three weeks at the Giro. He again played a crucial support role at the Tour de France, this time for Jonas Vingegaard, and then rode on at the Vuelta a España, where he took the top step of the final podium for himself, after first beating back an intra-team rivalry.
All In: The Trilogy follows the team’s successful conquest of all three Grand Tours in 2023. It is set to debut March 16 on Amazon Prime, but is for now only available in select EU countries; check out the trailer here.
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