Sepp Kuss and Dane Jonas Vingegaard of Team Visma-Lease a Bike dominated the high mountains on Friday as the American claimed a historic solo victory on stage 19 of the Giro d'Italia and his teammate firmly defended his overall lead.
By winning the brutal mountain stage, Kuss became the 116th rider in cycling history to complete the Grand Tour stage victory trilogy, adding the Italian success to previous wins at the Tour de France in 2021 and Vuelta a Espana in 2019 and 2023.
"To be honest, it's something I always dreamt of, but every year it's getting harder and harder. I keep progressing, 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, but I just can't believe it," Kuss said after the race.
The monstrous 151-km stage through the Dolomites packed a brutal 5,000 metres of altitude gain into a relentless rollercoaster of high-altitude climbs and technical descents, before finishing in the Veneto village of Alleghe.
Italian Lidl-Trek rider Giulio Ciccone seized his chance on the final long descent, breaking free from the chasing group to establish a one-minute lead with 10-km remaining.
However, Kuss launched a relentless pursuit as soon as the final uphill climb commenced, catching and passing Ciccone with just over two km left before riding clear.
Kuss crossed the finish line alone ahead of thousands of cheering fans to secure the victory 13 seconds ahead of Canadian Derek Gee-West of Lidl-Trek. Ciccone held off the rest of the chasing pack to take third place, 36 seconds behind Kuss.
"By the bottom of the climb, there was a gap of one minute, so I thought, 'Oh, it's over'," Kuss said of Ciccone's push. "To be honest, I was a bit demotivated because I thought it was over, but I just tried to focus on doing the fastest climb possible. A nice win for me."
Austrian Felix Gall of the Decathlon team took fourth place, 39 seconds behind Kuss, just ahead of Vingegaard who crossed the line with the same time in fifth.
The result leaves Vingegaard with a commanding overall lead of four minutes and three seconds over Gall in the general classification.
Earlier on Friday, UAE Team Emirates rider Jhonatan Narvaez was forced to abandon the race due to complications from a minor incident the previous day.
The team said the Ecuadorean had a small crash on Thursday during the post-stage transfer back to the team bus and the resulting discomfort was too severe to manage on Friday.
Narvaez leaves this year's edition of the Italian Grand Tour with three stage victories.
