“Nice guys finish last.” So said the baseball manager Leo Durocher. On Sunday, Leo was proved wrong.

Sepp Kuss won the Vuelta a España, a three-week cycling race in Spain. Here’s a celebration with his teammates only minutes before the finish line:

I love the pointing.

Most especially, Sepp is a nice guy to his wife:

This photo is so real … the joy, the love.

Sepp includes just about everyone, even folks whose hands he’s touching for the first time.

“In his two Vuelta stage wins – the first in 2019 and the stage six victory this year that set his GC challenge in motion – Kuss slowed down in the final kilometer of the stage to high-five fans lined up along the roadside barricades.”

(GC means “General Classification”. The winner of the GC has the shortest overall time at the end of the race)

Take a look:

What’s this fellow like? What you see and hear is what you get.

Teammates are revered:

Robert and Dylan were pulling 90% of the stage. [Riding in front of Sepp, protecting him from the wind] It was a long hard day and they were up there all day so just big hats off to them, they were amazing. And then Attila was there on the last climb and Primoz did a lot of work for me there on the last climb and on the flat as well with Jonas.

After a stage in the middle of the Vuelta. Sepp had been wearing the red jersey, which indicates the fastest rider so far:

I’m really happy. When I crossed the finish line, I thought I had lost the jersey. And I wasn’t even sad because I gave it the best I could on the climb.

And reflecting on winning the race:

No, I’m not different now that I’ve won La Vuelta, not at all. I’ll still be me. It’s life changing for sure. I think I’ll look back on this experience with a lot of fun memories. It’s still sinking in, I think it’s gonna take quite some time. Now, a big celebration. Family, friends are here, and that’s gonna be really special, to be with the riders and the staff, tell the stories of the last three weeks. So many memories and good times.

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A good man

A great story