As a town known for its many recreation opportunities, Durango cultivates many young athletes, including bikers. But not many of these young luminaries and their talents have taken it much further than the college level. The story is different for Sepp Kuss, a Durango Devo alumni who went on to win the Vuelta a España on September 17th, 2023.
Kuss attended Durango High School as a part of the class of 2012, and throughout his schooling years in Durango, he was an avid member of Durango Devo. One of his old coaches from the program, Rotem Ishay, watched young Kuss as his talents grew. When asked if Durango as a community helps foster people like Kuss and their ambitions, Ishay expressed that, “The answer is profoundly yes. Just like many others, I moved to Durango with great ambitions of professional bike racing at a high level. The values integrated within my education at Fort Lewis College…makes it a fertile soil for pursuing dreams, and the cycling related community, traditions, culture, history, knowledge, trail systems, and altitude greatly support cycling ambitions here!” Living in a town, especially with a college, that values athletic prospects, is a very rare, and amazing opportunity to be presented with.
But it’s not just a town like Durango that shapes a success like the one Kuss achieved. It takes a certain person to devote so much time and energy into pursuing a craft like cycling. And according to Chad Cheeney, a close friend and also an old Devo coach of Kuss, “His love for the sport got him far as well. He never seemed to think of the need to train, he’d just ride and explore as a way to get time in the saddle. If he was stagnant in his fitness, he’d change gears and try a new approach.” To get where you dream of being, it not only takes hard work and dedication, but a true love for what you do, and it seems that Kuss has exactly that kind of passion for cycling that has taken him so far.
For as much time Kuss devoted to his craft, of course, an opportunity like growing up in Durango is just luck. And anyone who has grown up in Durango surrounded by the many opportunities that are offered here, is beyond lucky. “Just by virtue of living in Durango, you already start at an advantage because you have so many outdoor opportunities. The community is so ingrained in outdoors and it’s all really good people. It’s a wholesome way to grow up,” explained Kuss in a Durango Herald article by Bryce Kelly.
It’s not often that you hear of a small town success story like the one that is the life of Sepp Kuss, but with the help of determination, hard work, an amazing location, and a whole lot of modesty, he has blown away all of Durango and more. Above all, it was an amazing victory, a victory which he is sure to see much more of in the future.
