American rider Sepp Kuss won the grueling 15th stage of the Tour de France on Sunday as race leader Tadej Pogacar remained on course for his second overall victory.
Kuss is the first American to win a stage at cycling’s biggest race since Tyler Farrar 10 years ago.
The 26-year-old Colorado native left it late to make his move in the punishing 191-kilometer (118-mile) ride from Ceret at the foothills of the Pyrenees to the tiny mountain-bound nation of Andorra.
Kuss attacked going up the 1,796-meter Col de Beixalis and maintained his hard-fought advantage over Spanish veteran Alejandro Valverde, who was 23 seconds behind. Dutch rider Wout Poels finished third and took over the polka dot jersey for the best climber.
Now Kuss will shift back to his domestique duties, working for teammate Dane Jonas Vingegaard, who sits third in the General Classification. “It’s good to have a rest day tomorrow, and recuperate and relax. Now we’re in the third week and Jonas is super strong,” he said.
“We can be really happy with the two stage wins and we can shift the focus to Jonas. We still have to discuss the tactics but with summit finishes coming up maybe we can take risks.”
Pogacar was only questioned toward the end of the stage as Jonas Vingegaard followed Ben O’Connor’s example with two attacks.
Pogacar answered both without any problems and increased his overall lead to more than five minutes over Rigoberto Uran and Vingegaard. Guillaume Martin, who was second overall ahead of the stage, dropped back to ninth.