Only 4 days before the start of the Tour de France, the American Sepp Kuss, winner of the 2023 Vuelta and important piece for the Dane Jonas Vingegaard in Visma in the defense of the title, will not be at the start of Florence on Saturday due to Covid-19.
“Sepp Kuss has not recovered sufficiently from a Covid infection and will not participate in the Tour,” said a statement from the team Vismaso the Dutchman Bart Lemmen replaced him.
Kuss, a key man in the team and especially in the mountain stages in the service of Jonas Vingegaard, had to retire in the Dauphinéen, apparently not in good shape at the end of the seventh stage.
On Thursday, the Vuelta winner was still on the Tour team that presented Visma-Lease a Bike, but the technicians decided to rest the American for his full recovery.
Kuss’ replacement, Bart Lemmen, is 28 years old and new to the Visma team. He has no experience in grand tours, but he was second in the Tour of Norway, where he showed the skills of a good climber.
The Visma team for the Tour will consist of Jonas Vingegaard, Wout Van Aert, Matteo Jorgenson, Christophe Laporte, Tiesj Benoot, Wilco Kelderman, Jan Tratnik and Bart Lemmen.
Source: La Verdad
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