With an eye to the forthcoming Giro d'Italia, Steven Kruijswijk (LottoNL-Jumbo) withdrew from the Tour de Yorkshire ahead of the tough final stage to Sheffield on Sunday. The Dutchman was a faller in Scarborough on Friday, but recovered to ride prominently in the finale of stage 2 to Harrogate.
Kruijswijk's LottoNL-Jumbo team explained on Sunday that he had no lasting injuries from the crash, and was withdrawn from the Tour de Yorkshire simply as a precaution ahead of the Giro, which gets underway in Sardinia on Friday.
"It was not planned before the race but yesterday after the stage we decided it was enough," LottoNL-Jumbo directeur sportif Addy Engels told Cyclingnews in Bradford. "Of course, he crashed on the first stage, so yesterday was a test to see how he could handle the injury. He handled it well, he worked well for the team in the final. His shape is good so we decided to give him an extra day of rest ahead of the Giro d'Italia instead of one day more of suffering."
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Kruijswijk was one of many riders to come down in the finishing straight on Scarborough's windswept seafront on Friday afternoon, but beyond a blow to the chest, Engels said that he had reported no significant damage.
"He just hurt a little bit in the chest but yesterday he was able to race as he should. Of course, it was a nasty crash and without the crash for sure he would have done the race today, but now we give him an extra day to recover from it," Engels said.
With the Giro's start shifted forward to Friday in order to accommodate the additional rest day needed to bring the caravan from Sardinia to Sicily after the Grande Partenza, there were just four days between the finish of the Tour de Yorkshire and the start of the corsa rosa. Kruijswijk's early withdrawal means that he maintains the same five-day gap between Yorkshire and the Giro as the last two seasons.
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