In the first week of the Vuelta a España, the leading dark horse in the breakaway group unexpectedly gains a large gap on the main group and takes both the stage win and the overall win. This is what happened to Sepp Kuss in 2023 and again to Ben O'Connor in 2024.

Speaking at the finish in Junqueira, the 2023 Vuelta champion recognized that there were definitely similarities between his stage win in Jabalambre last year and his important GC foray.

Unlike O'Connor, who won stage 6 of the 2024 Vuelta a España, Cus did not take the Vuelta lead in Habalambre. But as Cus says, the similarities are obvious, and allowing O'Connor to gain so much time can be dangerous for the GC stars.

“Sure, there are breaks like this almost every year. It's a big advantage and today was another good race.”

As to whether the events of 2024 mirrored those of 2023, Kuss simply replied, “Just like the 2023 race, there were a lot of racers on the break and everyone was losing time early on. This was the perfect place to move and gain time.” [...] [... [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...]