Just two years after taking up road racing full time, former mountain biker Sepp Kuss is heading to the WorldTour with LottoNL-Jumbo on a two-year deal announced last month. It's a scenario that seemed improbable even to Kuss not too many months ago.
The 23-year-old American sprung onto the US domestic radar in 2016 at the Redlands Bicycle Classic in April, winning the Queen stage as an unknown from an amateur team in front of former Garmin-Sharp riders Lachlan Morton and Janier Acevedo.
He followed Redlands with a solid ride among the best climbers at the Tour of the Gila, and Rally Cycling signed him soon after. Since then, the three-time US Collegiate Mountain Bike Champion, who graduated from Colorado University in Boulder this May with an advertising degree, has been on a rocket-ship ride to the sport's top level.
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“If you had asked me last year or in 2015 if I'd be on a WorldTour team, I would think that would be kind of a crazy spot to be in. But here I am, so I'm ready to embrace it," he told Cyclingnews last week from his parents' home in Durango, Colorado, before heading to the Netherlands for a first meeting with the team this week.
Kuss went on in 2016 with Rally to win the Queen stage at the Tour de Beauce, an infamous test that ends with the multiple switchbacks up to Mont Megantic. He rode the Tour de l'Avenir with the US national team but struggled, and he admits that his season ended with more of a whimper than a roar, but his raw talent was obvious and the potential was there.
An early wake-up call
In 2017, Kuss' first full season with Rally, he started with a February trip across the Atlantic for the one-day Vuelta a Murcia in Spain won by Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) and the five-stage Volta ao Algarve in Portugal won by future LottoNL-Jumbo teammate Primoz Roglic. Kuss and his Rally teammates suffered on the trip, and the young American finished 45th in Murcia and 76th overall at Algarve. It was an inauspicious beginning, but it set him up well for the rest of the year.
Striking gold in California
Finishing Strong
Bangin' bars in Italy
Getting the call from LottoNL-Jumbo
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
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