Sepp Kuss finished stage 20 of the Tour de France disappointed, having finished third after cresting the Col de Sarenne in third, but it could have been so much worse.
The Visma-Lease a Bike rider crashed twice in the final 8km of the day on the descent from the Sarenne before the small climb up to Alpe d’Huez, with the second crash looking particularly terrifying.
First, the American crashed as he left a dark tunnel with 7.1km to go, but then with just over 4km to go, he misjudged a corner on a fast descent and was saved from plummeting over a sheer drop just by safety netting on the bend.
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The heart-stopping moment allowed Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) to catch and overtake him, and win the stage, his second in three days. To add insult to injury, Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) passed him in the finale.
The only consolation was third place, and a combativity prize. The other good news is that the man from Colorado seemed unhurt by the incidents, but he came close to disaster. The prize of a second Tour stage win was on the line, hence the pressure Kuss put on himself on that descent.
“I wasn’t entirely clear-headed,” Kuss told France Télévisions post-race. “The effort was incredible. I was trying to maintain the gap with Richard Carapaz. I knew he wasn’t far behind and that he would fight to the end. I was trying to gain as much time as possible on every corner.”
“I wasn’t too scared,” he continued. “I thought I’d read the right line. Luckily, there were nets. It would have been nice to finish this Tour on a positive note. But I managed to finish the stage, and we’re satisfied with the fighting spirit we showed in this Tour. We fought to the very end.”
“I was so on the limit, I misjudged the corner a bit,” he added to the Tour’s media team. “First in the tunnel, and then after that I was still trying to make up too much time and I misjudged the corner. It was a bit scary, sorry to my wife and my family watching at home! That’s racing. I’m happy with the fight and the performance, and it was a big day out.
“That’s how it goes, you can’t always have good luck, of have everything in your way. We can be proud of the way we fought as a team. After Jonas [Vingegaard] was out the race, we made the most of every single day. I felt the support of the guys during the stage, I couldn’t pay it back but we can be proud of our effort.”
To dampen what could have a been a perfect day even more, the day’s jury bulletin revealed that Kuss had been fined 1500 CHF ($1,832) for littering.
The exact rule reads: “Rider or team staff disposing of waste or other objects outside of litter zones, or not returned to team or organisation staff, not collected by team staff, thrown at a spectator.”
He did it twice, according to the report; for the first offence, he was fined 25 UCI points and 500 CHF, for the second offence, 50 UCI points, 1000 CHF and 60 seconds in the general classification.
