Misfortune for Kuss, second win for Carapaz in Le Tour.

Near disaster for Kuss, who crashed twice as Carapaz catches him on Alpe d'Huez

In heartbreak fashion, Sepp Kuss lost a golden opportunity to win on the famed Alpe d’Huez. Quel injustice!

With 8k to go, Kuss (Visma Lease-a-Bike) was fighting to keep a 15 second gap over a charging Richard Carapaz (EF Education EastPost).

As the American exited a darkened tunnel, the situation turned black. He crashed up against the right side wall. He quickly remounted — amazingly staying just in front of the Ecuadorian. Bullet dodged?

Then not a minute later Kuss overcooked a sweeping, high speed right hand corner. His rear wheel skidded into the concrete barrier and his butt slid across the top. If there hadn’t been a high safety fence, he would have gone over the cliff. The consequences could have been life threatening.

Refusing to give up hope, he remounted as Carapaz flew past. Sadly, the opportunity had vanished. Kuss made a final effort to catch his rival but his battered body had had enough.

Adding insult to injury, Remco Evenepoel caught him in sight of the finish, taking over second place. There are no gifts on the Alpe.

It was a double shock in what has been a tour of high speed crashes and near misses. At these speeds, catastrophe was always a split second from happening.

In his post- race comments, a smiling Kuss apologized for scaring his wife and family. “I was so on the limit and I misjudged the corner,” he said. “Then I was trying to make up too much time, and misjudged another corner.”

It was, like the book title, A Series Of Unfortunate Events” on a day that offered such a tantalizing reward. And a rare set of circumstances.

For once, there was no Tadej Pogacar screaming up the mountain to kill everyone’s hopes and take his sixth stage of this Tour. The Slovenien spent the last hour playing shepherd and hype man for his exhausted teammate Isaac Del Toro. He’d made it a goal to do everything to help the Mexican keep the white jersey and the final step on the podium.

That meant Kuss and Carapaz were free to fly without the demoralizing threat that the UAE duo would shut them down. Just keep riding hard and one of them would win the queen stage and reap the glory.

Carapaz already had the polka dot jersey of best climber wrapped up. Now, he wanted his second Alps stage win of this tour. Kuss, on the other hand, was hoping to complete his grand tour trophy set: a Giro d’Italia stage, a Vuelta Espana stage and, with any luck, a victory in Le Tour.

He did not have any luck whatsoever. He crashed twice, the second of which could have pitched him over the cliff, sending him pinwheeling down the rocky slopes. Another three or four feet, and he would have skidded past the safely fence and fell a hundred feet. That in itself was a miracle.

In the end, the classy, good-natured Kuss sat next to Carapaz, congratulating him and retelling his own misfortunes.

I guess you could say that despite his near catastrophe on the Alpe d’Huez, he could still thank his lucky stars. He was alive.