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The Jumbo-Visma team celebrates itself on the final stage of the Tour of Spain

Photo: SUSANA VERA / REUTERS

American professional cyclist Sepp Kuss has won the 78th Tour of Spain and celebrated his first victory in a Grand Tour. As expected, the greatest career success of the 29-year-old from Team Jumbo-Visma was no longer in jeopardy on the triumphant trip to Madrid. The day's victory went to Australia's Kaden Groves, who celebrated his third stage win at the Vuelta.

At the finish line on the Paisaje de la Luz in Spain's capital, the sprinter from Team Alpecin-Deceuninck relegated Filippo Ganna from Italy and German Bora-hansgrohe rider Nico Denz to second and third place. They had previously been in a leading group of six, which caught up with the peloton a few meters before the finish, but could no longer overrun.

In the overall standings, Kuss' teammates Jonas Vingegaard and Primoz Roglic consolidated their podium finishes. The Dutch team Jumbo-Visma made cycling history with Kuss' success on Sunday evening: Never before had a team managed to win all three major national tours in one calendar year. Roglic had triumphed at the Giro d'Italia in May, Vingegaard in July at the Tour de France.

In the final week of the tour, the three-time Vuelta winner from Slovenia and Vingegaard had attacked their regular noble helper Kuss themselves and thus caused controversy. On the last difficult stage on Saturday, however, they led their teammate to the finish line without taking any action.

The final section, which is only 101.5 kilometres short, was started late on Sunday afternoon at a racecourse. From the Hipodromo de la Zarzuela on the outskirts of Madrid, the 148 remaining riders rolled towards the center of Madrid. First of all, there were the obligatory photo sessions with the jersey wearers around Kuss and defending champion Remco Evenepoel, who won the mountain classification, as well as the winning team Jumbo-Visma and the top three in the overall standings.

Jumbo is also so good because the others are too weak

It was only when the peloton reached downtown Madrid about 50 kilometers from the finish that the pace picked up noticeably. The attack of the day was set by the two German Bora-hansgrohe riders Lennard Kämna, who finished tenth, and Denz as well as the Portuguese Rui Costa. They were then part of the strong leading group alongside Evenepoel and former time trial world champion Ganna.

One reason for Jumbo's strength is the weakness of the competition. Defending champion Evenepoel did not compete in the form of the previous year, and the climbing Spaniards such as Juan Ayuso, Enric Mas and Mikel Landa once again did not fulfill the longings of their compatriots. "We had expected more resistance, but in the end we had the three strongest drivers in the race," said sporting director Grischa Niermann.

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