After a Giro win with Primoz Roglic and a Tour win with Jonas Vengegaard, Sepp Koss took a final win in the 78th Vuelta yesterday. “Extraordinary,” sums up the Jumbo-Visma team’s unique performance.
“There are no superlatives for it anymore. This has never happened before and we are also on the podium at the Vuelta with three riders. Winning all three Grand Tours was the goal, and we achieved it.”
Plugge admits that it was always Jumbo-Visma’s intention to keep Kuss at the forefront. “Our tactic from the beginning has been to keep Sepp as close to the classification as possible. Not only to put pressure on Soudal – Quick Step, but also on other teams.”
“We knew in advance that the competitor was very strong and we had to make sure that Kos stayed close. It is of course a dream for him to finish the race so close.”
It doesn’t matter to Plugge that none of his leaders win, but the American Kuss does. “The outside world always creates such drama,” Plug says. “Chauvinism also plays a major role in this. But we are not looking at that, we just want to win the match.”
“We succeeded as a team together. The way we did it could make it even better. The great champions in our team also did Seb a favour. I think that’s great. That’s basically the way I look at it.”
“This Vuelta showed how we want to work as a team. #WinningTogether is not an empty slogan, we do everything for each other to achieve those wins together. This way everyone gets opportunities.”
“Usually these are leaders, but in this case Kos suddenly gets a unique opportunity and seizes it. This is a signature of our culture. We couldn’t do more to explain how we work.”
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