Vuelta a España 2023: Stage 18 Extended Highlights | Cycling on NBC Sports

Turning a defending champion of the previous year into a breakaway contender in Remco that reflects how strong of a team Jumbo Visma was.

Outstanding! Thanks

GO SEPPY, GO!!!

Riders on a DIFFERENT team riding in support of and giving Sepp Kuss the win = a GIFT

Riders on the SAME team riding in support of and giving Sepp Kuss the win = TEAMWORK

PR and JV, your choice is: help Sepp and be magnanimous, or attack Sepp and be pusillanimous.

🎉❤😊bicycle 🚵‍♂️nice great views. 😂

I’m glad to see Jumbo behaving as a team, bravo👏 👏 👏

Kudos to Bob and Christian on the excellent commentary!

Go Sepp!!!

All this talk about nothing is given. Roll & Christian have no idea what the team dynamics are. Obviously, JV and PR finally felt the pressure of other cyclists’s comments and decided to help Kuss. But don’t get it twisted, JV could have taken this today. Fortunately for Kuss, the Vuelta places the individual time trial much earlier in the race. If it was placed near the end like the TDF, don’t think JV would be so accommodating. Kuss needs to lead his own team and make that no.1 money.

Jumbo backtracks and caves to bad publicity. Ugh
The policy was best rider wins. Jumbo gives up that philosophy today

“No gifts to kuss” roll says.
Baloney.
Vingegaard could have won vuelta today. But held back. A gift

See… Good things do happen to nice guys! No one deserves red more than Sepp!!! Extremely proud of management, and the whole team. Their stock went up a “bunch” today!!! Their hearts and brains are as good as their legs!

well, i was right. Team strategy was clear. Stage 16 was for JV to attack (since he was 3rd) and the other 2 to respond to counterattacks. Stage 17 was for Roglic (since he was now third). And today's stage 18 was for Kuss which other two respected. I would have done the same strategy if i was the team's DS

Watch out the Euros will flick him 😊

I cannot believe that Sepp waited up for Jonas when he radioed for him to slow down, after the past two days of Jonas riding like a petulant child. I would have dropped him without a thought! But Sepp has a bigger heart than I do. And to apologize for dropping Jonas right after finishing? I don’t think he needed to apologize for anything. Just say “how’d you like that?” 😊

So much drama has been made about TJV tactics, and yet if you listen to Sepp, it is as he says. JV & PR (& others) did miles and miles of pulling Sepp in the red jersey in spite of being the team leader. Sepp didn’t begrudge the fact that JV got sick earlier, which realistically is the only reason he has the jersey.

And today, JV was the diesel that pulled Sepp along when others were attacking. Inside of the last K, there was one last attack. JV realized he didn’t have the legs anymore, and signaled for Sepp to attack. A champion domestique. Well played by the entire team.

What language is that one guy speaking? Some of the words sound familiar but many seem to be short by one or two letters.

Why chase Ayuso to the line when he is 4min down?

Star name in the Vuelta this year is 'Sean Weetabix ' - definite sponsorship deal;

I only tune in for Bob's announcing! I miss Bobke TV maybe next year he can do a behind the scenes with the announcers.

Kuss is a class act and needs a way classier team...JMO...!

Thank you

Thanks for the coverage, boys ❤

Jonas must have gotten the memo....

Great to see Jonas on Mic saying, “Sepp I got you, slow down and I’ll get you there” and Sepp sitting up and grabbing Jonas Wheel. Awesome.

Props to JV and PR for being good teammates today. If Sepp closes out with a grand tour win, this sets up TJV to keep him (spread some love) and take the Giro and Le Tour with him back as domestique.

Keep at it Jeff, buena suerte.

I really hope Jumbo releases a Vuelta documentary. I would love more than anything to get the unbridled truth. They disrespected Sepp so bad, and i need a doc where they own that and really give Sepp his flowers

their all tired.

I hope that there was some sort of deal that was made so that JV and PR were 'allowed' to go ahead yesterday. Otherwise, I hope they got their asses shamed hard for pulling what appeared to be a very garbage move yesterday. Good to see them working for Sepp for the first time in, what, 3 years?

Looks like the 'dog eats dog' mentality got reigned back in and teamwork rose back to the top... where it belongs

Primos was my favorite.....not anymore!! KUS is mine now!
Shame on you JV!!

Kuss being gifted a major tour win with the commentators arguing that it is somehow owed him. That probably makes sense through American lenses. Bizarre precedent if a 3 minute gain by a domestique in an early stage of is dictating how team ride their tours. Vingegaard could easily have taken the red jersey after starting the Vuelta with stomach issues without the team helping him. Very true that this Vuelta wasn't going to be decided by seconds. I was decided by Jumbo Visma as a PR stunt and with complete disregard for racing is supposed to be about.

Charity race

"No gifts asked for, none given."

Not a done deal yet but I wouldn't be surprised if TJVs DS took notice what people said on social media and he realized he actually needs to manage the team. We'll see...

The Durango Kid..actually, one tough hombre..no longer a ..kid..ride on, Sepp we have enormous respect and admiration for what you are accomplishing in the Vuelta..

The apparent humility shown by Sepp when he apologized for putting a few seconds into Jonas is wholesome! Especially after Jonas put more than a few seconds into him on Stage 16, when TJV already had the podium locked out. (I'm overlooking Stage 13 because TJV hadn't yet claimed the GC 1-2-3 and, with hindsight, it felt like it was the last real day on TJV to figure out who to support going forward.)

Of course, some credit if and where it's due... If Jonas stuck to (and notably, I don't think he ever pulled for) "Race & See" Roglic in Stage 17 to prevent Sepp's doors getting blown off and keeping Roglic in line by not allowing him to take red and making sure TJV had a clear 2nd leader for GC if anything happened to Sepp between now and Madrid, then 'chapeau' to him for returning one of the many favors Sepp has given TJV in the past.

That said, I'm no pro or DS, so what do I know? Only that, after a shambles of an opening (that team TT...), this year's Vuelta has increasingly shaped up to be exciting! But more than anything, I hope that TJV's coherence as a team is less strained than us commenters are making it out to be because I've loved watching such a force of nature power its way through all of this year's Grand Tours!

Allez Sepp & TJV!

Stepping back to let a teammate win a stage is one thing, I don't like the idea of stepping back for a teammate to win a classic though. This is a rare case I guess where the only challenger is other teammates. If Remco were still a threat I'd highly doubt anyone with a brain would tell JV and Roglic to hold back at any point.

FINALLY, good to see Jumbo finally riding for their Red Jersey super domestique Sepp! It's about time!

So nice to see an American step up again in major races, and I can't imagine a better representative for us to have. Humble, hard working, personable, and supports his team. He's been very instrumental in some big wins by others.
If he wins the Vuelta it's going to be a great thing for US cycling.
Good luck Sepp!!

How on earth did commentators pet “give away” the race? They make it sound like he had no interest in winning. Commentary content and biases leaves much to be desired. Hopefully future brings improvement.

Sepp is to nice why he apologizing, they should be apologizing to him for trying to burn him.

Kuss smiling all the way through that last windup to the line

All is right again;;; 🇺🇸

I enjoyed the photography. I wonder how many aerial shots are drone now as opposed to helicopter.

You know why they call him Led Sepplin?

Because he ROCKS!!

Thanks for the extended highlights - appreciate the spoiler free thumbnails and quality commentary!

I'd think "works well with teammates" would always ALWAYS be a worthy achievement in any team sport. And when a team refuses to punish a selfish teammate, this speaks SO LITTLE of the team's future. Back in 1985, it was Hinault and LeMond.

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Am not 😔