Kruijswijk cracks the top top to move into eighth overall
A staple of the Giro d'Italia's third week in recent years has been a strong Steven Kruijswijk fighting for stage wins and steadily moving up the general classification. While a brief moment of inattention arguably cost the Dutchman the 2016 Giro, he was still one of the strongest riders in last year's peloton.
Having overcome the worst of the rib injury he sustained on the eve of the Giro at the Tour de Yorkshire, the LottoNL-Jumbo rider recorded his second top-ten result of the race on stage 18 to climb to eighth place overall. Sitting 15th overall for the majority of the first week, Kruijswijk improved to tenth in the Montefalco time trial only to slip back to 12th the following stage. Since then, he has steadily improved day by day with stage 18 his best performance yet.
"It was only 137 kilometres, but 137 kilometres in which everyone was on his limit. "I'm better compared to the first week, when I didn't have this level. The cause of this may be due to that crash," said Kruijswijk, who was the best of the Dutch rider on the day ahead of Bauke Mollema and maglia rosa Tom Dumoulin. "Fortunately, I can now show that I have the level. You can see that it's very high and that I can go with the others."
ADVERTISEMENT
While in previous days Kruijswijk has made back time on the GC via breakaways, he showed his improved condition by riding with the CG group during the stage through the Dolomites. He then displayed his racing nous by making full advantage of the podium contenders watching each other on the Passo Gardena.
"Vincenzo Nibali jumped to him and Dumoulin closed the gap. I could follow well and in the last 25 metres of the climb, we closed the gap. There were two men still away in the end, and that's a pity because it would have been nice to race for the win. We can take advantage of the battle between the three podium candidates, a bit gambling with the stage win possible," he added.
With over two minutes to Mollema in seventh place, Kruijswijk has a tough ask to improve his overall position, admitting his off first week has cost him the chance of matching his fourth place of 2016.
Jungels concedes white jersey
Cataldo goes on the attack for Astana
Berhane continues Dimension Data's attacking approach
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
via Cyclingnews Latest News http://ift.tt/2r3MA9k
No comments:
Post a Comment