Sepp Kuss (Visma Lease a Bike) conquered the queen stage in the Dolomites of the Giro d’ltalia to take a debut stage win at the Corsa Rosa.
The American climber outlasted the rest of his breakaway companions to win atop the Piani di Pezze as his teammate Jonas Vingegaard has a solid hold on overall victory at the Giro. Derek Gee-West was second, gaining time on his other general classification rivals, as Ciccone finished third. Ciccone looked good to take the stage win, after he launched a move over the penultimate climb of the Passo Falzarego, having already taking the maximum mountain points over the top of the Passo Giau. Ciccone duly won the Cima Coppi, the prize for conquering the highest point of the Giro.
After stage wins at both the Tour de France and Vuelta a Espana, as well as the overall at the latter, Kuss added a Giro stage to his palmares to complete the set.
“I was a bit demotivated because I thought it was over, but I just tried to focus on doing the fastest time possible, on a steep climb. A nice one for me. To be honest, it was never the primary goal, the main challenge was to win the pink jersey with Jonas. So far it’s looking good, but when they told me the other night that I had the chance to go in the break I knew I had to seize the opportunity.”
-Sepp Kuss
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