Sepp Kuss conquered the queen stage of the Giro d’Italia on Friday as his team-mate Jonas Vingegaard retained his firm grip on pink through the Dolomites.
Kuss added to Visma-Lease a Bike’s joy in this Giro as he caught and passed a solo attempt from Giulio Ciccone with two kilometres left of the 151km stage 19, which packed in more than 5,000 metres of climbing and included the high point of the race over the Passo Giau.
Kuss completed his set of Grand Tour stage victories as he won by 13 seconds from Derek Gee-West, who moved up to fifth overall, while Ciccone had to content with third place on a day when he moved into the lead in the king of the mountains competition.
Ciccone had joined the day’s breakaway with the latter goal in mind, leading the race over the Passo Giau to win the Cima Coppi.
After Einer Rubio pipped him to the points on the penultimate climb of the day Ciccone tried to turn his anger into a stage win as he charged off the front, but a lead of a minute going into the final climb was not enough.
Ciccone finished just ahead of Felix Gall and Vingegaard, with Vingegaard retaining his four minute three second lead over Gall going into the final mountain stage on Saturday.
Kuss said: “(A stage win) was never the primary goal, the main challenge is to win the pink jersey with Jonas and so far it’s looking good. When they told me the other night I had the chance to go in the break I knew I had to seize the opportunity.”