diphthong

between tvg and the riders of rohan (dennis) departing, bmc can kiss the ttt wins goodbye.

Giacomo 1 

Anybody watching this young American, Sepp Kuss, in the Tour of Utah?

Wow, laying waste to everyone in the mountains, all while wearing the yellow no less. He has a great relaxed style on the bike that reminds me of Thomas Voeckler. He plays very well with the fans to. Not sure if he's going to the Veulta. Hope so.

TJ? Ummm, not so good...

Maelochs

---------------SPOILER ALERT---------------------
YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED

Thomas Voekler made better faces when he rode. And his crazy long attacks rarely worked.

This guy has nailed it twice from long range---very impressive. In a way i think it is more what Americans expect from bike races. this is the land of the hero, and the guy in yellow is supposed to be the best.

Watching the Euro races, the teams beats up everybody and the leader sometimes breaks lose on one or two stages in the last few hundred meters. he doesn't "lead" the team ... the team carries him to the door step.

Kuss kicked down the door and ran through and disappeared up the mountain. granted his team pushed the pace, but so did BMC and drapac.

I think it was a really mature move, in fact. Drapac would have attacked him every minute or two until he was cooked. if he had stayed in the yellow-jersey group he would have lost the jersey. he had the legs and the .. . saddle bag to attack while the other riders were just warming up ... caught them all napping.

One of the announcers said he was making the race boring. news flash---a lot of sports are boring a lot of the time. But those moments of excitement and emotion when some guy does something special ... like dropping all the GC contenders on the stage on which they had all planned to gang up on him ... is Not boring.

JT Burkard

Maelochs

Could be he is just tired. He has raced a long time and he hasn't got a big win in a long time. he has raced a lot of miles this year and bad luck and fatigue prevented him from earning accolades. He looked tired on the early climbing stages at Utah, and I think he is just physically and mentally worn out.

Sadly, I don't expect much at the Vuelta. I don't think he has much left.

I am hoping that come next year, with a mostly U.S.-based team and schedule, Tejay will find some success, win some races, maybe go to Europe fro some major one-week races ... which seem to be what he is best suited for.

He has been draining himself riding Grands Tours with very little to show for it. Wrong tool for the job, the tool get torn up. I hope next year will see him revitalized somewhat.

EDIT: the while BMC team seemed worn out at Utah, in fact. Too many miles in the legs. That also makes me think they won't be tearing it up at the Vuelta.

Giacomo 1 

I have to agree.

There is no way that a rider as experienced as he is should look so bad against such a young peloton unless he is just getting in some miles. He did say before the TOU, it was either race here or put in training miles, which makes it sound like he wasn't to serious about winning here. At least I hope he is sandbagging.

Travis McCabe - world class sprinter? Looked very good here and was always in the right place.

one4smoke

Yeah, he's been mighty impressive in the climbs. I recorded stage 5 and watched it this morning.

How is Kuss at sprints and TTs? Does he have what it takes to ever be a serious contender in a major?

Giacomo 1 

So much has to go right in any athletes career to be "contender", so who knows? But he is heading in the right direction and he has left a real impression on everyone who's been watching

He is no sprinter for sure, and while he is getting better at TTs, he still has a ways to go as his early career has shown terrible TT results. He has a lot of international experience which of course is a good thing, and he's only 23, so I think he has a lot of potential to make a mark on the Pro circuit.

Giacomo 1 

Pemetic2006

I didn't see the last two stages as I am traveling cross country but if Tejay looked as bad as some are saying on the climbs along with slipping down to 18 in GC I have no clue why he's riding the Vuelta.

Maelochs

From what they said on the site, Sep Kuss was supposed to do the Colorado Classic later this week, but is going to the Vuelta .... hopefully instead, and not after, the Classic.

it will be his first Grand Tour.

Giacomo 1 

I really don't think TJ was riding to win.

TJ said before the race he had to either get in training miles or he could just ride the TOU. Doesn't sound like this was much more than a training ride to him really.

Also, the announcers and crew picked stage winners everyday just like they do in the TDF, and none of these 5 guys picked TJ as their guy in the mountain stages. That's kind of odd as TJ should pretty easily outclass this field. My guess is they were told or had information that he wasn't riding to win. As a-matter-of-fact, they didnt even mention TJs name at all in that last stage.

Great news on Sepp going to the Veulta. I hope he can snag a stage or at least be competitive there.

Vegasclimber

Sepp put in an incredible ride, for sure. He is going places, and I look forward to watching him race in the future.

As far as TJ goes, I tend to feel that it's partly due to him leaving gas in the tank for the Vuelta, and partly due to being worn out due to a heavy schedule. The heat was brutal at TOU, to say the least, and that wasn't helping matters. I agree that he would probably be best in a one-week rotation - it will be interesting to see what JV does with him. Looking forward to seeing what he is doing in Girona when the training season starts, that will say a lot for his future.

Just for fun, a few shots I took on Stage 2, which was the only one I made it to this year. Had plans to attend the prologue and finish as well, but I got caught up in stuff at home. Did have a very fun day chasing the peloton around on my bike and in my vehicle, even got a few cool water bottles.

​​​​​​

​​​​​​

​​​​​​

Steeljag

MyTi

He never really came to prominence like everyone thought he would as the next great American GC rider. Perhaps he should just be a domestique and focus on stage wins.