“We will certainly miss him,” said Visma Ries a Bike teammate and Vuelta a España champion Sepp Kuss about how the loss of co-leader Wout van Aert will affect the Dutch team in the Spanish Grand Tour. Sepp Kuss spoke about how the loss of co-leader Wout van Aert will affect the Dutch team in the Spanish Grand Tour.

Until his crash late in stage 16 of the Vuelta a España on Tuesday, van Aert was the star of the race, with three stage wins, a two-day victory at La Roja, and the lead in both the mountains and points classification when he was forced to retire.

But this streak of victories and first place came to an abrupt stop on the descent of the Colada Romera on Tuesday.

The Mexican and German came through almost unscathed, but Van Aert suffered a deep right knee injury that made it impossible for him to continue the race.

“It was pretty hard to see him on the side of the road, already stopped with his car,” Kuss said at the start of stage 17.

“Yesterday [Tuesday] I was just focused and just trying to finish the stage as well as I could. But today, on the team bus, I noticed a little bit [his absence].”

Kuss himself helped Van Aert pull away from late attacker Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates) for his second stage win in the Vuelta of Cordoba. But as the Colorado racer observed, it was Van Aert himself who made the difference each time.

“He is irreplaceable. Especially considering what he accomplished in the race and what is left for him.”

“He gave the team really good focus on almost every stage. So when he's gone, things change. But we'll do the best we can with the guys we have left.”

In the 2021 Vuelta, the peloton tackled the same descent in much heavier rain than on Tuesday, and a number of riders fell. Kuss, who finished second that day in Lagos de Covadonga behind then-teammate Primoz Roglic, recalled the moment.

“I remember we were already passing downhill when the crash happened. In the peloton, we were going downhill very carefully. But with Van Aert's (who will compete in the 2024 Vuelta) braking, there was a reason to race a little harder."

Instead of starting a blame game, Kuss at least said that the crash was “nobody's fault or anything. There are always dangerous conditions on these roads. You never know when you might slip.”

Kuss, who finished 12th overall after the incident-free 17th stage, said that Vuelta organizers would not criticize the system for indicating dangerous or technical sections of a stage.

“In many races, the signals are really good. Especially on tricky roads, it's interesting to race and it's fine, but you have to give the right warnings.

“I think the organization here does a good job in that regard, and it's hard to say, but you can't mark every corner. In the end you just have to be lucky and be in the right place at the right time.”

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