Interview | Sepp Kuss: ‘I still regularly remember the Armstrong era’

For the Wieler Revue-Tourspecial, he looks back on his victory last year. “When I won a stage in the Tour de France, I got more attention than I thought. It’s also because as a cyclist you live in a small world and you lose the signals what it means for the fans in your country. I had a lot of positive feedback on this victory.

In the United States, the Tour de France is the only race that matters. “Apart from the Tour de France, all the other races are difficult for Americans to follow. When I say I did the Tour de France, people say, “Oh, you must be really good. It remains a difficult sport to explain to people who don’t know the nuances between a professional cyclist and a recreational cyclist.

Of course, the most famous American cyclist of all time is regularly discussed in his own country. “Yes, I still regularly remember the Armstrong era. So the doping years. People who are very firm in their faith say that cyclists are still the way they were in those days. Then it’s hard to convince the people that the sport of today is different from that of then.

“The confession of Armstrong and other former top players of course had a huge effect on the popularity of the sport. People lost their faith in a clean sport. But the environment is completely different now.