Jumbo-Visma’s Sepp Kuss Accused of Motor Doping By Former Pro

“With Lance Armstrong there was never any evidence, but we riders in the peloton knew about his deception. Now exactly the same thing is happening.”

Those very strong words came from former professional cyclist turned team manager Jérôme Pineau who, on the sports podcast Les Grandes Gueules du Sport – RMC, publicly accused the American Sepp Kuss of mechanical doping during this year’s Vuelta a Esapaña. The allegations came following the Jumbo-Visma rider’s jaw-dropping attack on the Tourmalet during Stage this past Friday.

Kuss has been putting in an exceptional performance during this year’s Vuelta for what is indisputably the most dominant team in the peloton right now—Jumbo-Visma. Afterall, the team has had two other star riders on the highest podium in both of the other Grand Tours this year, and is going after a record-breaking hat trick with a Vuelta win. They currently occupy spots 1-2-3. To say they have been at the top of their game this year would be a vast understatement.

Throughout those two other Grand Tours, Kuss was a loyal soldier and an absolute super domestique who made those wins for Jumbo-Visma possible. He was elemental in securing a win for teammate Jonas Vingegaard at this year’s Tour de France, and played an essential supporting role in his teammate Primož Roglič’s victory in this year’s Giro d’Italia. Many fans have been waiting and hoping for Kuss to get his time to shine, which fueled the pre-race speculation about whether the Vuelta would be his opportunity to go after the top podium himself.

But apparently not everyone is a fan. Pineau, who in the past raced for QuickStep among other teams and was most recently team manager for the B&B Hotels-KTM team, the team whose sudden preseason collapse left staff and riders, including Mark Cavendish, scrambling for new employment at the eleventh hour, has made that clear.

“We see the pictures,” he said on the podcast of Kuss’ performance during Stage 13. “I am not talking about doping, but about something that is even worse. Mechanical doping? Yes, mechanical. If you watch Sepp Kuss’s attack on the Col du Tourmalet, against riders like Juan Ayuso, Cian Uijtdebroeks–who is a great talent–and Marc Soler. They’re not so slow on bikes, are they? Kuss rides ten kilometres per hour faster with his attack, then has to slow down because of a spectator and then rides ten kilometres per hour faster after.”

The attack in question came at about 1.2km before the mountain-top finish atop what is probably the most famous climb in bike racing, the mighty Col du Tourmalet. The move can be seen in the highlight video above at about the four minute mark.

“How do you explain that?” Pineau continued. “Cycling is my sport, I have lived from it and still live from it. It’s my passion, but I am still scared. It worries me a lot. I see certain things happening…Kuss advances ten seconds without pedaling. I just don’t know how that’s possible.”

It should be noted that Pineau has zero evidence that anything about his accusation that Kuss is mechanically doping is actually true. As such, Jumbo-Visma wasted no time firing back after the allegations hit the media. The team’s Director Merjin Zeeman didn’t mince words in his response to the situation, reported by GCN Plus.

“Comments of a ‘team manager’ who signed multiple riders and staff and then in October it turned out that he was fooling everybody and put all these people in a bad position? That person can talk about others?” Zeeman said to the outlet.

It should also be noted that this is far from the first time a rider has been accused of mechanical doping, and that extensive equipment checks are performed by the UCI at WorldTour races to make sure the team’s bikes comply with a laundry list of equipment requirements and rules. To date, no one has ever been found to be mechanically doping.

According to Cycling Weekly, an unnamed spokesperson for Jumbo Visma indicated that the team is not taking Pineau’s comments seriously.

“We continue to explain transparently how we work and what the basis of our successes is (nutrition, altitude training, top equipment, etc.). In addition, we find it strange that the media give someone a platform without being able to properly substantiate his accusations. Especially knowing the damage that the same person has recently done to cycling with his delusions.”

Jumbo-Visma—and Sepp Kuss—are clearly keeping their eye on the prize. The representative said the team remains completely focused on winning their third Grand Tour in a single year and making sure 2023 goes down in the history books as the season of the Jumbo-Visma hat trick, which at this point seems like a very likely outcome. Whether Kuss is in the top spot at the end of the race remains to be seen. If he wins, he will be the first American in a decade to win a Grand Tour.

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