How Kuss and Co. Blew Their Best Chance to Beat Tadej Pogačar on Alpe d'Huez

Did Lenny Martinez, Richard Carapaz, and Sepp Kuss blow a chance of stopping what many are already calling the greatest climb in Tour de France history?

They had the numbers and a big head start on Tadej Pogačar at the base of Alpe d’Huez in stage 19. But instead of drilling it to the summit, the last three survivors started attacking each other instead.

Kuss knew it would be a long shot.

“I knew he would probably go from the bottom so with that you probably need six minutes lead or something,” Kuss said. “It was still a good gap.”

Pogačar came to Alpe d’Huez with unfinished business after missing out when the Tour last climbed here in 2022.

But when the three leaders didn’t commit to racing to the line, there was almost no hope at all.

‘Nobody wanted to commit’

Kuss, Martinez, and Carapaz still had a chance. Friday’s breakaway reached the base of the Tour’s most famous climb with about a 3:30 advantage over the yellow jersey group.

They dropped the remnants of the break with a little more than 11 kilometers to go, and the tactics up to that point had gone to script. All three had saved their legs for the final moves after support from teammates in the early break.

But rather than work together until the finish, the trio started playing a costly game of cat and mouse.

“It was just everyone on their own, nobody wanted to commit fully,” Kuss said. “It’s still a climb where you get quite a bit of drafting, so it was pretty tactical at the end.”

Carapaz would attack, Martinez would mark the wheel, and ever-steady Kuss would tempo back.

They hit the replay button all the way up the climb in front of thousands of delirious fans. Behind them, Pogačar already made his move.

‘We believed the stage win was possible’

With hundreds of thousands of fans on Alpe d’Huez, it was impossible for the leading trio to know what was happening behind them.

But they were not helping themselves. Carapaz attacked four times trying to shake Martinez, who marked every move but never came through with pulls. Kuss would claw back each time.

“At the bottom of Alpe d’Huez, we really believed the stage win was possible,” Carapaz said. “I felt I had the legs to fight for the stage, but the breakaway group didn’t cooperate very well toward the end. Plus, Pogačar simply had an extra change of pace.”

Carapaz almost got taken out by a neutral service car in the chaos just as the Alpe d’Huez standoff was on its last legs.

When the trio rode together, the gap steadied, but once they started stop-and-start attacks, the Slovenian could pile on the watts and trim the gap in successive chunks/

Pogačar also got help from UAE teammate Adam Yates waiting up the road after spending all day in the escape. After bouncing back from his crisis two days earlier, Yates gave Pogačar a few precious pulls before the final chase.

‘I saw they were looking at each other’

In pro cycling, every rider and team has their own ambitions. And deep into three weeks of a grand tour, the legs don’t always follow the perfect tactical playbook.

The gap to Pogačar quickly shrank from 2:30 to under 30 seconds with 4km to go.

“I saw they were looking at each other and I knew that I will catch them,” Pogačar said “I also knew that maybe somebody of those three is saving a little bit because they were looking at each other. So I was quite in doubt.”

When Pogacar made the catch, Kuss was the first to drop and the Coloradan held on for fourth.

Martinez, just as he did at the Tour de Suisse earlier this summer, latched onto Pogačar’s wheel.

“I only started thinking about the stage win right at the end. Second place is great, but winning would have been amazing. Still, Tadej (Pogacar) was the strongest,” Martinez said.

Martinez insisted he was racing more for GC than the stage win as he bounced ahead of the Lidl-Trek duo of Juan Ayuso and Mattias Skjelmose into fifth overall.

‘That’s not sporting’

Carapaz couldn’t hide his frustration after the finish after letting the Tour’s most famous stage slip away.

A winner on the previous day, Carapaz attacked early and perhaps too often, but he wanted to get rid of Martinez. Then Martinez edged him for second, something Carapaz clearly did not appreciate.

“I was angry because Lenny cut me off in the final corner. It was a bit disrespectful,” Carapaz told Eurosport. “It doesn’t make any difference to me whether I finish second or third, but there are certain things that should be respected. So I was very angry.

“At first, he didn’t cooperate, and then he cut across my line. That’s not very sporting.”

Could the trio have held off Pogačar if they drilled it to the line? No one will ever know.

Against peak Pogačar who broke the long-standing Marco Pantani record, you need more than perfect tactics.