Sepp Kuss (Visma-Lease a Bike) claimed his Grand Tour stage set by conquering the Queen stage of the Giro d'Italia. The American, a Vuelta a España overall winner in 2023 has won stages at the Spanish Grand Tour and the Tour de France.
"It's something I always dreamt of," Kuss said at the finish. "Every year it gets harder and harder, I keep progressing and getting better, but so does everyone else, so every year that goes by, I think it's going to be even harder to win a stage in the Giro to complete all three [Grand Tour stage wins]."
Kuss finished ahead of Derek Gee-West and his teammate Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) who were in the day's break with the Visma rider in a bid to save what has been a disappointing Giro for Lidl-Trek.
"To be honest, it was never the primary goal," Kuss explained. "The main was to win the pink jersey with Jonas [Vingegaard], and so far it's looking good, but when the team told me the other night that I had the chance to go in the break, I knew I had to seize the opportunity."
Vingegaard was comfortable in the chase group, maintaining his lead over Felix Gall (Decathlon CMA CGM) and extending it over Thymen Arensman (Netcompany Ineos) who dropped time and was leapfrogged by Jai Hindley (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) into third overall.
It was an active start to the day, with multiple riders looking to get in the day's break in what proved to be a battle for the top 10 on GC. The Passo Duran, the first of six classified climbs was the launch pad for the break which was whittled down to a group of elite climbers including Ciccone and Gee-West, Kuss, Damiano Caruso (Bahrain-Victorious), Einer Rubio (Movistar), Jan Hirt (NSN), Giulio Pellizzari (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) and Michael Storer (Tudor Procycling)
Giro d'Italia 2026 stage 19 results
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The blue jersey competition, lead by Vingegaard at the start of the day, was the dominating narrative throughout the stage, which included over 5,000m of climbing. Ciccone led over the Passo Duran, the Coi and Forcella Staulanza, taking maximum points in the blue jersey competition. He also was the first over the Passo Giau, the Giro's Cima Coppi - the highest summit of this year's race. But on the penultimate ascent, Rubio decided to contest for the points, beating Ciccone to the line, taking the full 18 points, while the Lidl-Trek rider had to settle for 8.
The Italian was clearly angered by the Colombian's move and launched a solo downhill attack on the subsequent 20km descent. Ciccone built his lead out to over a minute by the start of the final climb to Alleghe. But he wasn't able to match the climbing of Kuss when the American caught him with 2km to go.
It wasn't all disappointment for Lidl-Trek, who despite not getting the stage win, did move into the blue jersey with Ciccone and up to fifth on the GC with Gee-West.
Arensman wasn't the only rider to drop a position in the GC – former pink jersey wearer Afonso Eulálio (Bahrain-Victorious) went from fifth to sixth, behind Gee-West, and now sits just over a minute ahead of Davide Piganzoli (Visma-Lease a Bike) in the white jersey competition.
The day started with some disappointing news for UAE Team Emirates-XRG, who have enjoyed a successful Giro despite having lost some key riders including Adam Yates on stage two; one of the most prolific riders of the race, Jhonatan Narváez was forced to abandon after crashing while riding to the team bus before the day started. The Ecuadorian's DNF put an end to the battle for the ciclamino jersey between him and Paul Magnier (Soudal Quick-Step).
Stage 17 winner Michael Valgren and his EF Education-EasyPost teammate James Shaw were also among those who won't make it to the finish in Rome - both abandoning before the stage start. Ethan Vernon (NSN) also stepped off the bike during the stage.
