Sepp Kuss crossed the finish line on stage 19 to add a Giro d'Italia stage win to victories in the Tour de France and Vuelta a Espana. The American completed the grand tour stage win trilogy with a historic solo victory atop Piani di Pezze in the Dolomites.
Kuss climbs to Giro d'Italia stage 19 win as Vingegaard maintains overall lead
Teammates Sepp Kuss and Jonas Vingegaard dominated the high mountains for Visma-Lease a Bike on Friday. Kuss claimed a solo victory on stage 19 of the Giro d'Italia, while Vingegaard firmly defended his overall lead.
By winning the brutal mountain stage, Kuss became the 116th rider to complete the Grand Tour stage victory trilogy. The American added an Italian success to wins at the Tour de France in 2021 and the Vuelta a Espana in 2019 and 2023.
The monstrous 151km stage through the Dolomites packed a brutal 5,000m of climbing into a relentless rollercoaster of high-altitude climbs and technical descents, before finishing in the Veneto village of Alleghe.
Lidl-Trek's Giulio Ciccone seized his chance on the final long descent, breaking free from the chasing group to establish a one-minute lead with 10km remaining. However, Kuss launched a relentless pursuit as soon as the final uphill climb commenced, catching and passing Ciccone with just over 2km left before riding clear.
Kuss crossed the finish line alone in front of thousands of cheering fans to secure the victory 13 seconds ahead of the Canadian Derek Gee-West of Lidl-Trek. Ciccone held off the rest of the chasers to take third, 36 seconds behind Kuss.
The Austrian Felix Gall of Decathlon took fourth, 39 seconds behind Kuss, just ahead of Vingegaard, who crossed the line with the same time in fifth place. That leaves Vingegaard with a commanding lead of 4 minutes and 3 seconds over Gall in the general classification.
Jai Hindley climbed into the podium places after leading Gall and Vingegaard up much of the final ascent on a decisive day in the Dolomites. The Australian finished 1 minute and 2 seconds ahead of Arensman on the stage to leapfrog the Ineos Grenadiers rider into third spot, where he sits 5 minutes and 4 seconds down on Vingegaard.
Earlier on Friday, Jhonatan Narvaez of UAE Team Emirates was forced to abandon the race due to complications from a minor incident the previous day. The team said the Ecuadorian had a small crash on Thursday during the post-stage transfer back to the team bus, and the resulting discomfort was too severe to continue. Narvaez leaves the Giro with three stage victories.
